India issues demarche to Turkish envoy over Erdogan's remarks on Delhi riots, calls comments 'politically motivated'

India has issued a demarche to the Turkish Envoy in Delhi Şakir Özkan Torunlar over remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calling Delhi riots a "massacre", the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. 

Addressing the weekly presser in Delhi, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said "comments by the Turkish President are... factually inaccurate and are driven by his political agenda. We do not expect such irresponsible statements from a Head of State."

"India right now has become a country where massacres are widespread. What massacres? Massacres of Muslims. By who? Hindus," Erdogan had said during a speech in Ankara as the violence in Northeast was still on. At least 53 people have died in the riots. 

The Turkish envoy was demarched on March 3. Relationship between India and Turkey has nosedived after a number of anti-India remarks by Turkish President Erdoğan.

This is the second demarch to the envoy by New Delhi this year. India had demarched the Turkish envoy in February of this year as well after Turkish President raised Kashmir in the Pakistani Parliament during his visit to the country.

That time the MEA in a statement had said, "This recent episode is but one more example of a pattern of Turkey interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. India finds that completely unacceptable. We particularly reject the repeated attempts by Turkey to justify the cross border terrorism practised so blatantly by Pakistan."