Turkey shrugs off Russian comments as 'black humor'

ANKARA

Russia’s comments about human rights abuses against Turkey’s Kurdish population is an example of “black humor”, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Moscow, which fell out with Turkey last month following the downing of a Russian warplane over the Syrian border, angered Ankara by voicing concern over operations in southeast Turkey and citing human rights reports on civilian victims.

In an initially sarcastic emailed response to a journalist’s question, Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic described Russia as a “country well-known for its democracy, rule of law and human rights record” before going on to condemn its “war-like actions in Ukraine and Georgia”, its support for “the bloody-handed dictator’s crimes against humanity in Syria” and the bombing of civilians in the war-torn nation.

For that country to “give human rights lessons to others is just an example of black humor,” he said.

Since the Nov. 24 shooting down of a Russian jet by Turkish F-16s over the Turkey-Syria border, Russia has announced a number of sanctions against Turkey while officials from President Vladimir Putin down have made critical and insulting comments about Turkey and Turkish officials.