BRIT ARRESTED ON HOLIDAY FOR FIGHTING ISIS
Ex-soldier held after beach raid in Turkey
A FORMER soldier who went to Syria to fight against terror group Islamic State is under arrest in Turkey.
Joe Robinson was detained along with his Bulgarian girlfriend and her mother while the trio were on holiday.
The two women have since been released, but Mr Robinson, 23, remains in custody.
He fought alongside the People’s Protection Units of Syrian Kurdistan – or YPG – against ISIS. But Turkey is hostile to the group because of links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.
His girlfriend Mira Rojkan, a law student at the University of Leeds, said police swooped as the three relaxed on the beach, confiscating their mobile phones, computers and other gadgets before taking them away for interrogation.
“It was just awful. They said someone had sent them an email saying we were terrorists about to do something in Turkey,” she said. “It is absolute nonsense. They arrested us on the beach while we were vacationing with my mother.”
Mr Robinson, from Accrington, Lancashire, toured Afghanistan with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment in 2012 before travelling to Syria two years ago where he served as a combat medic alongside the YPG.
Turkey has accused him of “being a mem- ber of a terrorist organisation”, sharing photographs of himself wearing a YPG uniform and other material relating to the Kurdish militia.
The trio were holidaying in Didim, about 60 miles north of Bodrum, south- west Turkey, when police raided the resort.
The Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign said in a statement: “Unfortunately, Joe has gone on holiday to Turkey not realising the kind of state it has now become.Turkey has jailed tens of thousands of Kurdish people, including elected MPs and mayors simply for peacefully campaigning for Kurdish rights.”
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said last night: “We are aware of the detention of a British national in Turkey and have requested consular access.”