The Turkish Foreign Ministry has summoned Chinese Ambassador Liu Shaobin over the diplomatic mission's social media posts about the Xinjiang autonomous region featuring mentions of Turkey's opposition politicians, according to reports cited by Sputnik.
"The Chinese ambassador was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry due to our concerns over posts on social media," the source said on Tuesday, as quoted by the Russian state-owned news agency.
The Chinese embassy also mentioned Turkey's Good Party chair Meral Aksener and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas, who had criticised China's human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority during an uprising in 1990.
"China determinedly opposes any person of power that in any way challenges country's sovereignty and territorial integrity and strongly condemns this. The Chinese side reserves its legitimate right to respond," the embassy said, as quoted by Sputnik.
Last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had conveyed "sensitivity" regarding the treatment meted out to Uyghur Turks. Cavusoglu's statement came during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Ankara.
China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghurs. Beijing has been accused of sending its Muslim minority to mass detention camps to undergo forcible re-education or indoctrination.
Beijing, on the other hand, has denied that it is engaged in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang while reports from journalists, NGOs and former detainees have surfaced, highlighting the Chinese Communist Party's brutal crackdown on the ethnic community, according to a report.
( With inputs from ANI )
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