New Zealand gunman entranced with Ottoman sites in Europe

BELGRADE, Serbia — The white supremacist suspected in the mosque shootings that left at least 49 people dead in New Zealand had travelled to the Balkans in the past three years, where he toured historic sites and apparently studied battles between Christians and the Ottoman empire.

Authorities in Bulgaria, Turkey and Croatia have confirmed that Brenton Tarrant, 28, had been to their countries in 2016-2018. Hungarian counterterrorism authorities also suggested that Tarrant had visited but revealed no other information, and local media in Bosnia reported a 2017 trip there.

While the details of Tarrant’s travels are sketchy, authorities in those countries said they are investigating his movements and any contacts he might have had with local people.

During his unprecedented, live-streamed shooting spree Friday in Christchurch, Tarrant exposed his apparent fascination with the religious conflicts in Europe and the Balkans — a volatile region that has been the site of some of Europe’s most violent clashes.

Tarrant’s soundtrack as he drove to the Christchurch mosque included a nationalist Serb song from the 1992-95 Bosnian war that tore apart Yugoslavia. The song glorifies Serbian fighters and former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic — the man jailed at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague for genocide and other war crimes against Bosnian Muslims.

Tarrant’s rifles contained the names of legendary Serbs and Montenegrins who fought against the 500-year-rule of the Muslim Ottomans in the Balkans, written in the Cyrillic alphabet used by the two Orthodox Christian nations.

In a 74-page manifesto that he posted on social media, Tarrant said he was a white supremacist who was out to avenge attacks in Europe perpetrated by Muslims.

While Serbia and Bosnia have not confirmed that Tarrant had visited, police in neighbouring Croatia issued a brief statement Saturday saying he was in the country in December 2016 and January 2017. It was not known if his stay was continuous.

Croatia’s 24 sata (24 hours) news site said Tarrant left Croatia by plane from the capital Zagreb on Jan. 18, 2017, after visiting the Adriatic coastal cities of Porec, Zadar, Sibenik and Dubrovnik, where he mostly stayed in hostels.

“Until that moment yesterday (in New Zealand), that person was not in the focus of our institutions,” Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told reporters Saturday, according to the official HINA news agency.

In Bosnia, the local Klix.ba news portal reported that Tarrant arrived in that country from Montenegro in early January 2017.

Bulgaria’s chief prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, said Friday that Tarrant last year rented a car and toured more than a dozen cities, visiting historic sites from Nov. 9 to Nov. 15. He was mainly interested in the battles between Christians and the Ottoman army, the prosecutor said.

The Interior Ministry said Bulgaria is co-ordinating with counterterrorism teams from various countries, including the United States, over Tarrant. An investigation has been launched into whether he had contacts with local citizens, authorities said.

Turkey is also investigating Tarrant’s movements during his two reported visits to the country that straddles Europe and Asia and who had three citizens injured in Friday’s slaughter.

State broadcaster TRT says Tarrant visited Turkey twice in 2016 — on March 17-20 and from Sept. 13 to Oct. 25. The station released a security camera image of him arriving at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport.

Hungary’s Counter-Terrorism Center suggested in an email to The Associated Press that he also visited there, saying they are co-operating with other countries to “fully examine the circumstances of (Tarrant’s) Hungarian trip and stay.”

“The details and phases of this process — for understandable reasons — are not public,” the centre said.

In Bosnia, many residents said the massacre in New Zealand and Tarrant’s mention of Karadzic, who has been convicted of genocide, have brought back their own horrific memories of the Bosnian war, which killed more than 100,000 people.

“This (attack) is more proof that Karadzic’s ideology is a motive for killings and terrorism,” said Adel Sabanovic, a Muslim from the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo and a survivor of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which Bosnian Serb troops killed some 8,000 Muslim boys and men. “It must be condemned in strongest possible terms.”

A YouTube video for the song that Tarrant played in his car on the way to gunning people down at the mosque in Christchurch shows emaciated Muslim prisoners in Serb-run detention camps during the war. “Beware Ustashas and Turks,” says the song, using wartime, derogatory terms for Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims.

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Pablo Gorondi contributed from Hungary.

Jovana Gec, The Associated Press