Mosque attack survivor wants to reclaim peace by walking same route terrorist took

Friday, 11 February 2022

Terror attack survivor Temel Atacocugu returns to the Al Noor Mosque to tell his extraordinary story of survival.

With every painful step Temel Atacocugu will reclaim peace – all 360 kilometres of it.

Bearing the shrapnel and the mental images of the day that took so much from him, he will walk from Dunedin to Christchurch to change the route that led to a hate crime into a route for peace.

Atacocugu was shot nine times in the 2019 terror attack at two Christchurch mosques, and shares his desire to promote peace and mental wellbeing to the younger generation by taking himself back to that terrible day.

He will start his peace walk on March 1 from the Dunedin home the terrorist lived in and follow the same route to both mosques. His decision highlights the resilience of a man who faces severe challenges every day to live a normal life.

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Temel Atacocugu is going to walk the same route the March 2019 terrorist took, so he can reclaim it for peace.

Last week he took 45 minutes to “come back” after watching a violent scene in the film Ghandi when English soldiers opened fire on innocent civilians.

A noisy room disquiets him and ambulance and police sirens instantly take him back to the sights and sounds he can never shake from his head.

Sometimes he isolates himself from friends for weeks, and he swallows two types of anti-depressants to try and hold the flashbacks at bay.

Before the attack, Atacocugu described himself as an outgoing man who loved sport, especially playing football. He was vivacious, lively and enjoying life.

If he was 100 per cent before, now he’s barely 50, he said.

“I can’t get the same taste as before.”

But Atacocugu continues the fight he started when he woke up in intensive care almost three years ago.

A bullet had struck metal bridgework in his mouth and ricocheted down to his jawbone. Shards of metal were in his arms, legs and chest, including shrapnel around one of his knees.

Two weeks later, attempting to walk in his hospital room seemed insurmountable.

Now able to walk 10 kilometres in two hours, albeit in pain, he can reflect on how far he’s come and how symbolic his journey of up to 15 days will be to those who seek to rebuke hate.

He hopes to walk up to 30km a day if the shrapnel scattered around his knee cap allows, and will raise money for Gumboot Friday, Save the Children and KidsCan via a Givealittle page.

He particularly wants to help children and young adults with their mental health, because he knows he will live with post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of his life.

Atacocugu continues to struggle with physical and mental injuries he sustained when he was shot nine times in the Christchurch mosque attacks.

But most of all he wants to live.

He wants to experience being a granddad and to laugh and love with his family and his friends.

And he wants to be at peace.

Reclaiming the same journey the gunman took is his way of surviving and a way he can help eradicate hateful ideologies.

“I hope our children live in peace forever … peace is much cheaper than war.”