British academic 'being deported from Turkey' after Kurdish invitations find
A British academic says he is being deported from Turkey after being found with invitations to Kurdish New Year celebrations.
Chris Stephenson, a computer sciences lecturer at Bilgi Unviersity in Istanbul, told The Associated Press that he was detained on Tuesday at a court where he was supporting three fellow academics charged with making terrorist propaganda.
He said he was arrested by police after security guards discovered the invitations in his bag.
Speaking moments before his departure from Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport Mr Stephenson told The Associated Press there had been "no offence, no trial, just an administrative decision to deport me after 25 years of residency in Turkey".
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are providing assistance to a British national who was arrested in Istanbul on March 15 2016, and will remain in close contact with the local authorities."
