Humza Yousaf

A freedom of information release sought by The Herald revealed that Mr Yousaf made the offer at a meeting between the pair at COP28 in December.

He said: “I said the next time he’s in the United Kingdom why not come up to Scotland?”

Questioned on this by reporters yesterday, Mr Yousaf said: “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?”

He implied the country, which has been accused of ethnically cleansing the Kurds, was a on a human rights “journey”.

The first minister said he would raise human rights concerns “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.”

Concern has increased in recent years that Turkey is shifting towards more authoritarian practices under Mr Erdoğan. Following an attempted coup against the Turkish government in July 2016, the government declared a state of emergency that suspended some of the normal functions of the constitution.

Over 100,000 people were arrested and 130,000 state employees were dismissed, while thousands of educational institutions and non-governmental organisations were shut down.

Turkey has also undertaken military operations against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bases within Turkey and in Syria and Iraq in what it calls efforts to stop terrorist attacks.

The PKK was formed in the 1970s and has Marxist-Leninist roots. It launched an armed struggle against the Turkish government in 1984 and wants an independent Kurdish state within Turkey. The conflict has cost some 40,000 lives. In his early years in power Mr Erdoğan made some concessions towards Kurdish demands for greater cultural rights, and there have been periodic ceasefires. Following a resumption in hostilities, around 2,000 people were reportedly killed in the context of security operations in Kurdish areas of southeast Turkey in 2015 and 2016. A United Nations reports referred to an excessive use of force by state forces, involving killings, enforced disappearances and torture.

Humanist Society Scotland chief executive Fraser Sutherland said: “This is a very short sighted invite [sic] from the first minister. Under President Erdogan Turkey has seen a sustained attack on civil liberties and human rights. Allegations of torture against political prisoners are widespread and the Turkish government censors and blocks webpages of news websites that are critical of the governing party.”

He added: “Erdoğan is an authoritarian despot. He should not be welcomed to Bute House by this first minister or any who follow him”.

Mr Yousaf also said this week that he was not comfortable with the word ‘national’ in Scottish National Party.

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