Politics

Humza Yousaf defends inviting Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Scotland

  • By Angus Cochrane
  • BBC Scotland News

Image caption,

Humza Yousaf met the Turkish president at COP28

First Minister Humza Yousaf has defended inviting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Scotland.

A freedom of knowledge launch to the Herald confirmed the provide was made at a controversial assembly between the pair on the COP28 summit in December.

Those talks sparked criticism from inside the SNP due to issues about Mr Erdogan’s remedy of Kurds.

Mr Yousaf stated he would elevate human rights issues with Mr Erdogan have been they to meet in Scotland.

It got here after the primary minister stated he was not “comfortable” with the phrase “national” within the SNP’s title as a result of it may be “misinterpreted”.

Asked in regards to the invitation to the Turkish president, Mr Yousaf informed reporters at Holyrood: “I said the next time he’s in the United Kingdom why not come up to Scotland.”

He added: “Why on earth would Scotland not look to seek to engage with a Nato ally and of course with somebody we would seek to do business and trade with?”

The first minister stated he would elevate human rights issues “as I tend to do whenever I have meetings with international leaders”.

He added: “But I should say of course we do that in a way that also recognises we’re on a human rights journey as are other countries.”

Minutes from the meeting at the COP28 summit revealed the pair had mentioned the battle between Israel and Hamas and Mr Yousaf’s parents-in-law, who have been trapped in Gaza for a number of weeks.

‘Disgusted’

The SNP chief denied to reporters that the invite to Mr Erdogan was associated to evacuating his members of the family from Gaza.

Mr Erdogan made a three-day state go to to the UK in 2018, which included a gathering with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. He additionally appeared alongside then-Prime Minister Theresa May at a media convention.

Kurdish-born SNP councillor Roza Salih stated she was “disgusted” by Mr Yousaf’s assembly with Mr Erdogan in December as Turkey had stepped up assaults on Kurdish teams in Syria.

The UK authorities additionally threatened to withdraw help for Scottish ministers throughout abroad visits since no UK official was current.

Image supply, Getty Images

Image caption,

First Minister Humza Yousaf has spoken in regards to the SNP’s title, Gaza, and the police investigation into his occasion

“I’ve never really been comfortable with the fact that we have national in our party’s name,” he stated.

The first minister defined that was not as a result of he thought founding members of the SNP had any “far-right nationalist inclination” however as a result of the time period may be “misinterpreted”.

He informed the podcast that the SNP had developed a “very strong brand” primarily based on being a “civic national party”.

“We’re a party that believes it doesn’t matter really where you come from – what’s important is where are we going together,” the SNP chief stated.

“And there’s no doubt about our politics being very routed in the left and the centre left of political discourse.”

Former SNP chief Nicola Sturgeon stated in 2017 that she would have modified the SNP’s title if she might “turn the clock back” as she believed the phrase “national” might be “hugely problematic”.

Mr Yousaf succeeded Ms Sturgeon as first minister in March final 12 months.

Ms Sturgeon, her husband and former SNP chief government Peter Murrell and treasurer Colin Beattie have since been arrested as a part of the police investigation into SNP funds.

All have been launched with out cost pending additional investigation.

The arrests have been a part of Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform investigation, which centred on about £600,000 raised by the occasion for independence campaigning.

Image supply, Getty Images

Image caption,

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon was arrested and launched with out cost

Mr Yousaf informed the podcast: “The police investigation has been one of the crucial tough instances for the occasion.

“There’s no ifs or buts or maybes about it. There has clearly been an influence by way of how we have been perceived by the general public and problems with belief and I’ve received to work onerous, as I hope I’ve been doing during the last ten months.

“I’ve received to work onerous to ensure that folks know, regardless of the consequence of that police investigation is, that the SNP is a celebration that they will belief.

“It’s been tough, little doubt, for these concerned. But tough for us as a celebration and it is actually been a problem for me in my first ten months.”

Gaza battle

Mr Yousaf additionally spoke of the weeks that his parents-in-law have been beneath siege in Gaza after the battle broke out in October. They grew to become trapped throughout a visit to go to family members.

Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, from Dundee, have been ultimately in a position to depart Gaza by the Rafah crossing.

The first minister stated: “The 4 weeks that my mother-in-law and father-in-law have been in Gaza are in all probability the bottom factors of my life and of Nadia’s life, they have been actually tough 4 weeks, exactly as a result of daily and evening by evening, we didn’t know in the event that they have been going to reside or not.”

Pressed on whether or not he would accuse Israel of “genocide”, Mr Yousaf stated any potential breach of worldwide regulation ought to be investigated by the International Court of Justice.

Mr Yousaf informed the podcast the advantages of being first minister included having the ability to “make any person’s day” but that “press intrusion” was one of many main drawbacks.

“There’s no getting away from it and your loved ones, your youngsters, being within the public,” he stated.

Humza Yousaf’s obvious try to distance himself from the idea of nationalism appears at odds along with his personal phrases as lately as final 12 months when he was working for the management of the Scottish National Party.

Addressing SNP members on the first hustings of the competition in Cumbernauld, in March 2023, Mr Yousaf appeared to describe himself as a “nationalist” in response to a query a few dispute with the UK authorities over proposed modifications to gender regulation.

“The beginning precept I might say, for any nationalist, the beginning precept should be to defend Scotland’s parliament and defend Scotland’s democracy,” he said, adding: “From me, I’m unapologetic, unequivocal. We should get up to Westminster’s energy seize.”

In 2017, Mr Yousaf’s predecessor as SNP chief Nicola Sturgeon additionally expressed concern in regards to the occasion’s title and its affiliation with nationalism. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-40975105.

Yet she too had beforehand embraced the time period “nationalists,” to describe herself and her supporters, for instance utilizing it 5 instances throughout her speech to the occasion’s 2014 spring convention in Aberdeen, together with on this phrase:

“Well, my fellow nationalists, after 80 years of campaigning, the final mile of our journey to independence is upon us.”

That was a reference to the historical past of the Scottish National Party which was based in 1934 by the merger of the National Party of Scotland beneath the socialist RB Cunninghame Graham and the Scottish Party of the extra right-wing Duke of Montrose.

In more moderen instances, defenders of the idea of Scottish nationalism have usually argued that it couldn’t be farther from the “blood and soil” model related to the Nazis and is definitely a ‘civic nationalism’ constructed on values fairly than id.

Mr Yousaf used a barely totally different phrase on this interview, describing the SNP as a “civic national party”.

There is an irony that inside hours of creating these feedback, the First Minister was suggesting that an authoritarian chief, identified for his slogan “One Nation, One Flag, One Motherland, One State”, ought to go to Scotland.

The SNP’s opponents typically scoff at ‘civic nationalism’, accusing the occasion of window-dressing a discredited, if not harmful, idea.

Of course Scottish nationalism doesn’t stand alone. These islands include a patchwork of nationalisms – British, English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh and extra moreover.

It hardly wants to be identified that the promotion and defence of a few of these identities and their related ideologies has led to quite a lot of blood being spilled.

It is Scotland’s nice luck – or maybe it’s common sense – that the controversy right here about this most controversial of ideas stays peaceable and democratic.

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