China’s ambassador to Ankara, Liu Shaobin, was summoned to Turkey’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday over social media posts responding to opposition politicians who had criticised Chinese treatment of Uighurs, a foreign ministry source said.

The discomfort caused by the embassy’s Twitter posts were conveyed to Chinese Ambassador Liu Shaobin, said an official on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

In response to IYI Party leader Meral Akşener and Ankara mayor Mansur Yavaş, member of the main opposition CHP, the Chinese Embassy had said on Twitter: “The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region is an inseparable part of Chinese soil.”

The embassy’s tweet was in response to the Twitter posts by Akşener and Yavaş in which they recalled the 1990 killing of Uighurs by Chinese forces in the Baren Township.

“The Chinese side determinedly opposes any person of power that in any way challenges China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and strongly condemns this,” it added. “The Chinese side reserves its legitimate right to respond.”