Erdoğan says awarding 'racist' with Nobel prize is human rights violation

Awarding a "racist" with a Nobel prize is a human rights violation, Turkish President Recep Erdoğan said Tuesday, referring to 2019 literature prize laureate Peter Handke, who has been criticised for backing late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

"Awarding the Nobel Literature Prize to a racist who denies and defends the Bosnia-Herzegovina genocide on December 10, Human Rights Day, will mean nothing other than rewarding the human rights violations committed.

Turkey said on Monday it would join Albania and Kosovo in boycotting the Nobel awards ceremony in protest against Handke.

The Swedish Academy's choice of the Austrian Handke has been widely criticised since he expressed support for and attended the funeral of Milosevic, the former Serbian president who died in detention at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague in 2006.

Milosevic was charged with war crimes in connection with atrocities and ethnic cleansing committed by Serb forces in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo during the 1990s wars triggered by the disintegration of federal Yugoslavia. He died in jail before a verdict was reached in his five-year-long trial.