On Monday, the Turkish Ministry of National Defence detained a woman named Suhayra Aden, who travelled to the country on an Australian passport, over her alleged links to the Islamic State (IS); her two children were also detained. The incident has sparked anger from New Zealand Prime Minister (PM) Jacinda Ardern, who accused Australia of dereliction of duty, after Australian PM Scott Morrison said the citizenship of the woman, who also holds a New Zealand passport, was revoked last year.
Turkey released a statement saying: “Three New Zealand nationals including an adult and two children were caught by our border guards in Hatay’s Reyhanlı district while trying to enter illegally from Syria. The adult, a 26-year-old woman named S.A. was identified as a Daesh [Isis] terrorist wanted with a ‘blue notice’. The captured terrorist was handed over to the Reyhanli Public Prosecution Office.”
The woman previously held dual citizenship to Australia and New Zealand, but had lived in Australia since she was six years old. However, in 2014, she travelled to Syria on her Australian passport to join the IS. Fearing her return to the country, Australia pre-emptively stripped her of her citizenship last year, thus making her a citizen of only New Zealand.
Following her discussion on the woman’s arrest with Morrison, New Zealand PM Ardern said, “I never believe that the right response was to simply have a race to revoke people’s citizenship … We will put our hands up when we need to own the situation, we expected the same of Australia. They did not act in good faith.”
She added, “It is wrong that New Zealand should shoulder the responsibility for a situation involving a woman who has not lived in New Zealand since she was six, has resided in Australia since that time, has her family in Australia and left for Syria from Australia on her Australian passport.”
However, Morrison rejected Ardern’s view that the woman should return to Australia, prompting the Kiwi leader to say that Australia had “abdicated its responsibilities in relation to this person”.
Ardern stressed that her concern was the welfare of the woman’s two children, who “were born in a conflict zone through no fault of their own” and will be returned to New Zealand, where they have no family. Although the children were born overseas and are thus technically stateless, New Zealand has a policy whereby they are “citizens by descent”.
Morrison, meanwhile, said in a press conference that he had simply “put Australia’s national security interests fist”. He said, “The legislation that was passed through our parliament automatically cancels the citizenship of a dual citizen where they’ve been engaged in terrorist activities of this nature,” adding, “We do not want to see terrorists who fought with terrorism organisations enjoying privileges of citizenship which I think they forfeit the second they engage as an enemy of our country.”
However, Arden refuted this stance, saying, “If the shoe was on the other foot, we would take responsibility.” She went on to say, “New Zealand, frankly, is tired of having Australia export its problems.” This was a thinly veiled reference to the Australian terrorist who was behind the Christchurch mosque attacks in March 2019. Although New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said that the perpetrator must be returned to Australia, he continues to be housed in a New Zealand prison, costing the country tens of millions of dollars.
Sources covering Ardern’s press conference say they have never seen Ardern so angry, and it is unlikely that this anger is likely to subside, given that Ardern said that she had “forewarned” Morrison that she would not take this case lightly and would push for Australia to take responsibility.
Ardern Slams Morrison for ‘Abdicating Responsibility’ Over Detention of Citizen in Turkey
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern lambasted Australia and PM Scott Morrison for “abdicating [their] responsibilities”, after the detention of a woman in Turkey who previously held dual citizenship.
February 17, 2021
IMAGE SOURCE: 1 NEWSNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern