Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Islamabad | Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images Turkish minister: Austria is ‘capital of radical racism’ EU membership spat between Vienna and Ankara continues.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called Austria the "capital of radical racism" on Friday, lashing out at Chancellor Christian Kern’s suggestion to end European Union accession talks with Turkey.

In an interview with Turkish broadcaster TGRT Haber, Çavuşoğlu rejected Kern's remarks, calling them "ugly," Reuters reported.

"The Austrian chancellor should first take a look at his own country," Çavuşoğlu said. "One of the trends that is an enemy of human rights and values is racism and today Austria is the capital of radical racism."

Austria shocked Europe when the far-right, anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPÖ) candidate Norbert Hofer almost beat former Green party leader Alexander Van der Bellen in presidential elections on May 22. The result was then overturned due to irregularities in the vote counting, with the rerun scheduled for October 2.

On Wednesday, Kern called Turkey’s EU accession talks a “diplomatic fiction” and said Austria would “start a discussion” about ending the negotiations with Turkey.

Ankara's reply came through European Affairs Minister Ömer Çelik, who said Thursday that Kern's comments were “similar to those of the far-right.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned Thursday that it would be counterproductive to halt EU membership talks with Turkey, but acknowledged that it has work to do in order to meet membership conditions set by the bloc.

In the same interview Friday, Çavuşoğlu also said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Turkey on August 24, Reuters reported.