A British academic in Turkey has said he is being deported from Istanbul 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 on Tuesday at a courthouse where he had gone to support three scholars charged with making terrorism propaganda.

Stephenson told AP that security guards found Nawroz – or new year - invitations in his bag and then police detained him. Stephenson said that moments before his departure on Wednesday from Istanbul’s Atatürk international airport there was “no offence, 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 on Tuesday.

Kemal Tuncaelli, Mr Stephenson’s lawyer, told APs the lecturer had been accused of “making terror propaganda” and said they plan to appeal against the decision to deport him.

Stephenson, who is married to a Turkish national and has a 13-year-old daughter, said he was “gutted” and denied supporting terrorism.

“In no way was I supporting terrorism. I was supporting a peaceful solution.”

He said the invitations found in his bag were issued by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic party, and featured a reference to Kurdish self-determination and a small picture of a barricade.