Natalie McGarry tells of Turkey ordeal '˜terror'

Former SNP MP Natalie McGarry. Picture: John Devlin

After landing at Heathrow yesterday, the Glasgow East MP sent a series of tweets des­cribing her “terrifying experience” when she was detained by the Turkish authorities.

The politician was quest­ioned by Turkish special forces while on a visit to the country with the GMB union.

At the time, her lawyer explained that the Turkish authorities took the action after she was seen recording the sound of falling bombs with her mobile phone.

Looking back on the epis­ode, McGarry tweeted: “I freely admit to crying when I was released. It was a terrifying experience albeit it only lasted a couple of hours.”

Her ordeal began when she was “forcibly removed from the street by a man who pushed me repeatedly and would’ve hit me but for intervention of younger colleagues”.

McGarry, who was suspended from the SNP last year while police investigate missing donations from the pro-independence group Women for Independence, was then “denied access to an interpreter and taken in to a shack behind the demarcation line which was filled with guns”.

When an interpreter was fin­ally allowed to see her after 45 minutes, she admitted to being “so relieved” that she was no longer alone with “no understanding of language amidst tank fire”.

McGarry has been a prominent pro-Kurdish campaigner who has been critical of the Turkish government.