British academic arrested in Turkey for 'making terrorist propaganda'

A British academic has been detained in Turkey on suspicion of 'making terrorist propaganda' for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) after distributing leaflets inviting people to Kurdish New Year celebrations, the Daily Mail reports.

Christ Stephenson, a computer science lecturer at Istanbul's Bilgi University, was held after he went to the city's police department in a show of support for three Turkish academics detained after they signed a letter denouncing military operations against the Kurds.

A Istanbul prosecutor accused Stephenson of 'making PKK propaganda'.

The report says the arrest comes after the Turkish government confirmed a female member of the PKK was responsible for the bus stop car bomb in Ankara that killed 37 people and injured 125 others. 

The interior ministry said Seher Çağla Demir, a Kurdish guerrilla fighter, has been trained by the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militant group fighting against ISIS in Syria. 

British Foreign Office confirmed Stephenson's arrest and said it was providing 'assistance to a British national who was arrested in Istanbul on 15 March 2016, and will remain in close contact with the local authorities'.