Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under fire after saying in an interview on Wednesday that being called Armenian was ugly.

The prime minister is facing racial accusations after responding to a smear campaign led by an opposing party in the presidential campaign claimed that he was not a real native Turk.

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During a live TV interview on NTV channel, Erdoğan said he was called by many names. He said at one point he was called a Georgian and been called Armenian, which according to him was an "uglier thing."

"What I have learned from my grandfather, my father and all of them is that I am Turkish. That's it," the prime minister said.

Erdogan's comment that it is ugly to be called Armenian prompted a social media frenzy and angered Armenian nationals.

"Excuse me, but please go and become the president of another country," said Hayko Bagdat, a famous writer of Turkish-Armenian descent, upon hearing the prime minister's statement.

The comment came days before the Turkish presidential election where Erdogan is the leading candidate for the commander-in-chief position.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, Nationalist Movement Party senior lawmaker Tugrul Turkes said the 21st century has a message for Erdogan that in this day and age, his words are considered as hate crime.

"Being an Armenian is not a crime, a fault, an ugly, an embarrassing or a sinful thing," Turkes said in the statement.

Erdogan is known to be an eloquent speaker and his comment may be just an honest mistake, according to the Washington Post.

However, Armenians have had a rough history with the Turks which makes Erdogan's statement seem tactless.

During the Ottoman Empire in the 1910's, Armenians have been killed in Turkey in what biographers consider as genocide.

TagsTurkey, armenia, armenian, ugly, Society