TRT World host and former Scottish leader Alex Salmond dies at 69

Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland and host of TRT World's Turkish Tea Talk who for decades championed Scotland’s independence from the UK, has died. He was 69.

Anas Sarwar, leader of Scottish Labour, on Saturday confirmed Salmond’s death and said Salmond was a “central figure in politics for over three decades.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Salmond a "monumental figure of Scottish and UK politics" who "leaves behind a lasting legacy".

Former UK Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Salmond was a “huge figure in our politics.”

"While I disagreed with him on the constitutional question, there was no denying his skill in debate or his passion for politics," Sunak said on X.

Scotland's current First Minister and SNP leader John Swinney said he was "deeply shocked and saddened" at the "untimely death". "Alex worked tirelessly and fought fearlessly for the country that he loved and for her independence," he added.

Fall out

Widely recognised as one of the UK's shrewdest and most charismatic politicians of recent times, Salmond turned the SNP from a small party at Westminster into Scotland's dominant political force.

His combative nature saw his fame spread beyond the UK. A dispute with Donald Trump led the former US president to call him "Mad Alex".

His electoral high point was Scotland's devolved parliament's 2011 election, when the SNP achieved what was previously thought impossible by delivering an outright majority.

That win smashed the two-party system of Labour and the Conservatives.

It also gave him the political weight to press for a referendum on Scottish independence from the UK, which the then British prime minister David Cameron finally granted in 2014.

Salmond, who headed the devolved Scottish government for seven years from 2007, is credited with helping to push support for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom to record levels during the 2014 referendum campaign.

Scots, however, voted 55%-45% in favour of staying in the UK in the vote.

Then a year later, he resigned from his party after allegations of rape and sexual assault emerged, resulting in him being charged with 14 offences.

He later became leader of a new pro-independence party the Alba Party, but it has failed to match the political successes of the SNP.