Terrorist sympathy ’shameful'

The criticism came as the Turkish embassy yesterday rejected the government's defence for its attendance at a memorial service for three female militants of the banned terrorist organisation, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The embassy said Premier Jay Weatherill, Multicultural Affairs Minister Jennifer Rankine and Speaker Michael Atkinson had incorrectly claimed on Thursday that Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc had expressed his country's condolences for the deaths of the militants in Paris.

Under fire in parliament, a defiant Ms Rankine, backed by the Premier and the Speaker, who is her partner, said she spoke at the service last month on behalf of South Australians to "express condolences about the slaughter of three women. The views that I expressed were no different to those expressed essentially by the Turkish government itself," Hansard records her as saying.

A spokesman for the Turkish embassy in Canberra said: "There was no message of 'condolence', neither written nor verbal, by the Deputy Prime Minister Mr Bulent Arinc."

The spokesman said the correct translation of Mr Arinc's remarks, made after news broke of the deaths, was that he "regrets" an "extrajudicial execution has been carried out" because he believed these "leading figures of PKK, wanted by Interpol" should be tried in a court of law.

"I would like to say that I am really sorry, for we are leading a lawful struggle against terrorism," Mr Arinc said at the time.

"Our aim is to bring terrorists before the law."

In her Adelaide memorial service speech, Ms Rankine paid tribute to the members of a group proscribed by the federal government as a terrorist organisation that has kidnapped Westerners and bombed places frequented by civilians and tourists.

Mr Weatherill, in defending his government's actions, told parliament the broader South Australian community should embrace those from different countries "associated with cruel and awful acts".

Yesterday, Mr Deegan, whose 22-year-old son was among the 88 Australians out of the 202 people killed in Bali in the 2002 terror attack, said the government's position was disgraceful.

"The Premier should know that you cannot defend the indefensible -- there has been an error of judgment by the Premier, Mr Atkinson and his partner, Ms Rankine," Mr Deegan told The Weekend Australian.

"They should not have attended that memorial and they certainly should not have suggested it was on behalf of the government of South Australia, who represent the people of this state," Mr Deegan said.

The South Australian Kurdish community yesterday welcomed Labor's support for their "freedom fighters".

Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Weatherill and Ms Rankine said they had no comment.