Barking councillor supports Grey Wolves

Sonia Gable | Monday, 13 November 2006 Source: Searchlight

A BNP councillor in Barking and Dagenham has said that if he lived in Turkey he would vote for the Grey Wolves.

Lawrence Rustem, who is half Cypriot, also told London's Turkish press that the BNP would pay people up to £150,000 to encourage "voluntary repatriation". When one journalist pointed out that Britain's population was aging and the country might welcome immigrants, he replied that British couples could be paid to have children.

The Grey Wolves are a Turkish fascist organisation and were responsible for the attempt to assassinate the late Pope John Paul II.

Rustem had recently returned from North Cyprus, which he visited for the first time to attend his father's funeral. He told the journalists: "The positive aspect that came of my dad's death was basically being reintroduced to my family, who I haven't seen for so long". He added: "The worst thing about Cyprus was having to come home."

He went as far as to consider the possibility of his own repatriation, explaining that his experience of North Cyprus had had an effect on him. "At this point other factors have entered into my life. A few weeks ago I wouldn't have thought I'd go to Cyprus. I wouldn't have thought I'd have perceived it as being a very nice place to visit, and maybe even one day to live."

Rustem's father Yilmaz Rüstem, an ardent Turkish nationalist, died in London in September 2006 but his body was returned to Cyprus for a Muslim funeral, a point that is unlikely to endear Rustem to his anti-Muslim BNP comrades.