Whenever someone mentions the words ‘escape’ and ‘Turkey’ in the same sentence, I immediate think of the classic film, Midnight Express. While the details of how a former British solider jailed in Turkey for fighting against ISIS managed to flee the country are scant, this definitely has the beginnings of a Hollywood plot.
To sum it up so far: In 2015, Joe Robinson from Accrington, Lancashire, travelled to Syria where he spent time with armed Kurdish groups, including the YPG. He says he was working as a medic, though he also admits to fighting Isis. He returned to the UK, but in 2017 made the fatal mistake of holidaying in Turkey. While there, he was arrested, convicted of being a member of a terrorist organisation and sentenced to seven-and-a-half-years in jail.
By now you’re probably wondering what the problem is.
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