The Turkish government paid for the wife of the First Minister to attend a summit in Istanbul, according to the Scottish Government’s latest list of ministers' interests.
Nadia El-Nakla and an SNP press officer attended Emine Erdoğan’s “United for Peace in Palestine” conference on November 15, following an invitation from the Turkish consulate in Edinburgh.
The Dundee Councillor spoke alongside leaders’ spouses from Qatar, Turkmenistan and Libya.
The new entry in the register does not reveal the value of the trip. It simply states that “the costs of Ms El-Nakla’s travel and local costs were met by the Turkish Government.”
READ MORE: Diplomatic row as Yousaf invites Erdoğan to Scotland
Earlier this month it emerged that Turkey had given Mr Yousaf’s in-laws short-term refugee status to help them escape Gaza.
Last week, The Herald revealed that the First Minister had invited Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Scotland when the two men met at COP28 in December.
He denied that the offer was linked to the help being offered to his wife's family.
President Erdoğan’s record on human rights means the invitation has proved controversial.
Campaigners from Scottish Solidarity for Kurdistan staged a protest outside Holyrood on Thursday.
Jenni Keasden from the group told the Courier, the invite was “insulting.”
She said: “Any kind of increased diplomatic, relations, ties and friendlessness between Scotland and Erdogan’s government is concerning.”
Earlier this week it emerged that Scottish Government officials had urged caution over Ms El-Nakla’s trip to Istanbul.
Internal government emails obtained by The Times through Freedom of Information revealed that the Turkish consulate-general approached the Scottish Government’s department for external affairs at the start of November in a bid to arrange a call between Ms Erdogan and Ms El-Nakla in which she would invite the first minister’s wife to a “meeting she plans to host … on the crisis in Gaza”.
The head of European relations at the Scottish Government then wrote to Mr Yousaf and Angus Robertson, the Cabinet Secretary for External Affairs, recommending a “holding response” while “officials seek further information about the event from the Turkish consulate-general”.
The following day, Mr Yousaf responded that his wife “should absolutely do the call.”
On November 8, one week before the summit, Ms Erdogan phoned Ms El-Nakla on her personal phone. An official said that the call took place “unexpectedly and unsupported.”
That suggests Ms El-Nakla was not briefed and no official from the Scottish government or Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office listened in.
The following Monday, Mr Yousaf’s principal private secretary told colleagues that “the First Minister’s wife intends to take up the invitation to attend the event in Turkey in a personal capacity.
"The invitation is therefore not to be managed in a government space.”
READ MORE: Diplomatic row over Erdogan meeting escalates
The FCDO was informed of the invitation but said that “no official assistance was being given to her" because it was in a personal capacity.
A Scottish Government spokesperson told the paper: “The Scottish government was not represented at the meeting in Istanbul hosted by the first lady of Turkey. The first minister’s wife attended the meeting in a personal capacity.”
The correspondence released to The Herald shows it was the First Minister himself who requested the meeting with the Turkish delegation at COP28.
His aides reached out to the consulate on November 30.
The messages then show that the Scottish Government found out at 1:19pm that a meeting with President Erdoğan was possible, however, it required them to get to the Turkish pavilion immediately.
Mr Yousaf had just left the building but was content to go back in through security to meet with the president.
A readout of the meeting by the Scottish Government, sent to the embassy in Dubai, states: "FM mentioned he was last in Turkey during Ramadan in 2022 and invited RTE to visit Scotland during a future visit to the UK.
"FM noted that their wives had met during the recent First Ladies and spouses of Leader’s Summit on Gaza in Turkey [on November 15]”.
President Erdoğan's side of the conversation has been redacted, with the Scottish Government claiming that revealing it could “prejudice substantially relations between the United Kingdom and any other State.”
However, the document suggests the Turkish leader asked about the First Minister’s family as Mr Yousaf “replied that it had been a frightening time given the lack of communication but they were now safe at home and recovering”.
READ MORE: Yousaf triggered diplomatic row by meeting Turkey's President Erdogan
When details of the meeting first emerged, Kurdish-born SNP councillor Roza Salih, said she was “disappointed and disgusted” by the First Minister.
In a Twitter post, she wrote: “I am disappointed and disgusted by this image @HumzaYousaf. Erdogan kills #Kurds in Turkey & does not respect human rights.
“Our politicians & half of the population are imprisoned by him and you shake his hand. I did not expect this from a FM that says he respects human rights.”
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