Turkey deports British academic accused of terror propaganda
A British scholar in Turkey says he is being deported from after being found with invitations to Kurdish New Year celebrations.
Chris Stephenson, a computer sciences lecturer at Bilgi University in Istanbul, says he was detained Tuesday at a courthouse where he had gone to support three scholars charged with making terrorism propaganda.
Stephenson told The Associated Press that security guards found Nawroz invitations in his bag and then police detained him. Stephenson said moments before his departure Wednesday from Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport that there was "no offense, no trial, just an administrative decision to deport me after 25 years of residency in Turkey."
There was no immediate comment from Turkish officials. Britain's Foreign Office said it was providing assistance to a British national who was arrested Tuesday.
