A new Israeli government report describes what it says is a systematic effort in Turkey to identify IDF soldiers who also hold Turkish citizenship, map their relatives and military service, and turn information gathered online into criminal complaints.
According to the Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry, activists search social media accounts, monitor pages linked to Turkey’s Jewish community, analyze photographs for military insignia and unit affiliations, and pass the information to lawyers for possible legal action.
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‘Hunting’ ads in Turkey seeking to identify IDF soldiers
(Photo: Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism)
The report says the campaign is being carried out by a network of anti-Israel organizations in Turkey and alleges that some of the groups involved maintain links with organizations designated or sanctioned by Israel or the United States.
The findings come against a broader backdrop of deteriorating relations between Israel and Turkey and increasingly hostile rhetoric toward Israel from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other senior officials.
But the report argues that the activity now goes well beyond street demonstrations or political rhetoric and has shifted toward identifying individual Israelis, particularly dual Israeli-Turkish nationals who served in the IDF.
At the center of the activity, according to the documents, are the Worldwide Lawyers Association, or WOLAS, and the Freedom Watch Platform, known in Turkish as Özgürlük Nöbeti Platformu.
The two organizations operate in complementary areas, the report says: collecting publicly available information on Israelis, campaigning against Israel, pursuing legal action and trying to convert online information into evidence that can support criminal complaints.
Former IDF soldier with Israeli-Turkish citizenship
(Photo: Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism)
The ministry’s documents also describe a broader network of contacts involving organizations including Al-Haq, IHH, Al-Mezan, Mavi Marmara-linked groups and the Freedom Flotilla movement.
The report characterizes some of those organizations as designated terrorist groups or entities under sanctions, and says activists within the broader network have also expressed support for Hamas online.
From Facebook and Instagram to the courtroom
One of the most detailed sections of the report describes the methods allegedly used by the Freedom Watch Platform.
According to the ministry, activists use open-source intelligence to identify Israelis who served in the IDF and also hold Turkish citizenship.
The first stage is discovery.
Activists monitor followers, posts and other social media activity, with particular attention to pages associated with Turkey’s Jewish community.
Once an individual is identified, the report says, researchers begin mapping that person’s family and social connections.
Family members are also mapped
(Photo: Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism)
Photographs and other publicly available material are then examined for military clues, including uniforms, insignia, unit affiliation and the context in which the person served.
In the final stage, the findings are published online and passed to lawyers, who use them to file complaints with Turkish authorities.
The report presents a case from February 2026 involving a former female IDF soldier with both Israeli and Turkish citizenship.
According to the documents, activists identified her through online material that included a post her mother had published on the day she enlisted.
They then analyzed photographs in an attempt to determine her military affiliation, mapped additional relatives serving in the IDF and ultimately published the information before filing a complaint.
From street protest to targeting individuals
The Freedom Watch Platform did not begin as an organization focused on IDF soldiers.
According to the ministry’s documents, it emerged from protests at an Istanbul port in 2024 surrounding delays involving a Gaza-bound aid vessel connected to the Mavi Marmara organization.
It later developed into a broader anti-Israel campaigning platform, including campaigns targeting Israeli companies.
(Photo: Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism)
(Photo: Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism)
Over time, according to the report, the focus shifted from Israel as a state and Israeli businesses to individual Israelis.
In February 2026, the issue of IDF soldiers holding Turkish citizenship reached the Turkish parliament.
The report also describes cooperation in February and March with HÜDA PAR, including involvement by the party’s legal department.
On March 7, a lawsuit was filed against Turkish citizens with dual nationality who had served in the IDF, according to the report.
After the IDF released information in February 2026 concerning soldiers who hold foreign citizenship, the ministry says the platform intensified its efforts to identify soldiers with Turkish citizenship specifically.
A separate ministry study cited in the report argues that antisemitism, anti-Israel delegitimization campaigns and legal efforts targeting Israelis have become increasingly embedded within Turkish institutions.
The ministry’s research division claims the activity extends from the education and religious systems to organizations operating internationally against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians, including efforts to accuse them of war crimes.
Turning online material into ‘evidence’
Alongside the Freedom Watch Platform, the report focuses on WOLAS, an organization of lawyers and academics based in Turkey that works internationally on issues of human rights and international law.
According to the documents, one of its methods is to take publicly available information, or information obtained through legal channels, and attempt to convert it into a basis for criminal proceedings against people linked to Israel.
The report says this includes efforts to create a named database of IDF soldiers who hold Turkish citizenship, formalize details in documents intended to serve as “official evidence” in court and transfer the material to law-enforcement authorities in Ankara.
The network map contained in the ministry’s documents suggests the activity extends beyond a single organization.
Alongside WOLAS and the Freedom Watch Platform, the report lists IHH, Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, the Freedom Flotilla movement, Mavi Marmara-linked organizations and other international groups.
The connections described range from joint activism and legal advice to jointly signed international petitions targeting Israel.
The ministry argues that taken together, the activity represents a shift from broad political campaigning against Israel toward a more personalized strategy aimed at identifying, documenting and pursuing individual Israelis through legal channels.