About six months after Islamist organizations in Turkey launched a social media campaign against Israelis with dual citizenship and leaked his personal information, Matan, a 27-year-old Turkish-Israeli citizen from central Israel and former police volunteer, traveled to Turkey to visit family.

Upon arriving in Antalya, a local police officer warned him to conceal his Israeli identity, telling him that extremists were looking to target Israelis.

During his visit, photos of Matan in IDF uniform and posters identifying him as a wanted man circulated online. Several weeks after his arrival, at 4 a.m., eight plainclothes counterterrorism officers raided his family’s apartment. Matan was arrested on suspicion of espionage and insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

“The investigators said they had received a report that I had come to Turkey to gather information on Turkish police officers and soldiers for Israel,” Matan recalled.

Matan said investigators accused him of murdering Palestinians, including women and babies, participating in genocide and committing war crimes as part of a special force that had raided a Gaza-bound flotilla.

He said he was held alone in a cell and subjected to physical abuse, recounting that one police officer deliberately slapped areas of his body that had been badly sunburned.

After approximately 24 hours in custody, a local judge ordered Matan’s release under restrictive conditions but barred him from leaving Turkey. His family subsequently worked with Turkish and Israeli attorneys, in coordination with Israel’s Foreign Ministry, to secure permission for him to leave the country.

About a month and a half later, he was finally permitted to return to Israel.

“We got on the first flight to Israel, and I screamed with joy,” Matan told Mako. “The investigation against me in Turkey is still ongoing, and I don’t know how it will end, but I will never go back there.”

He said the threats against him have continued even after his return to Israel.

“Every day I receive messages on social media threatening my life and the lives of my family members and claiming that I am an Israeli spy.”

Earlier this year, a former IDF female soldier with dual Turkish-Israeli citizenship was quietly rescued from Turkey after being detained while visiting her parents,

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)