Turkey Slammed Over 'absurd Lie' On Poet's Death

China hit back on Monday against Turkish criticism over its treatment of ethnic Uighurs and denied Ankara's claim that a renowned poet from the Muslim minority had died in custody, calling it an "absurd lie".

"China has already made solemn representations toward Turkey. We hope the relevant Turkish persons can distinguish between right and wrong and correct their mistakes," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a daily press briefing.

Turkey's foreign ministry on Saturday severely criticised mass detentions of Turkic-speaking Uighurs on the mainland, and claimed that poet Abdurehim Heyit had died while serving a sentence of "eight years in prison for one of his songs".

But mainland authorities on Sunday released a video showing a man who identified himself as Heyit saying that he was still alive.

Hua called the Turkish foreign ministry's statement "vile", and said the claim of Heyit's death was an "absurd lie" and "extremely wrong".

"I saw his video online yesterday, showing that he is not only alive but also very healthy," Hua said.

A UN panel of experts has said that nearly one million Uighurs and other Turkic language-speaking minorities have reportedly been held in "re-education camps" in Xinjiang region.

Turkey said the camps were "a great embarrassment for humanity", in perhaps the strongest condemnation yet from a Muslim country, which have been conspicuously quiet on the issue possibly to avoid Chinese diplomatic or economic retaliation. (AFP)