Turkey released two Israeli spouses, Mordechai and Natalie Okhnin, who were arrested eight days ago for photographing President Erdogan’s palace in Istanbul and were later suspected of spying. The two returned to Tel Aviv this morning on a private flight organized by the Israeli foreign ministry.
Messages of thanks to President Erdogan and the Turkish government were immediately published by the head of state Isaac Herzog, by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and by the foreign minister Yair Lapid. “I thank the president of Turkey and his government for their cooperation,” Herzog wrote on Twitter immediately after the Okhnin couple returned to Tel Aviv from Turkey, where they went for tourism two weeks ago.
“I also thank Prime Minister Bennett and Foreign Minister Lapid for their commitment to freeing the detainees”. Words of thanks to the Turkish president and his government were also expressed in a joint statement by Bennett and Lapid who wanted to signal the conclusion of the days of tension between the two countries.
Natalie and Mordi Oknin, both bus drivers, were in Istanbul to celebrate a birthday and posted a selfie on Facebook in front of the Dolmabahce building, which no longer hosts the presidential residence since 1923. hence the accusation: suspected spying.
The arrest came after the complaint of a waiter from the restaurant of the imposing Çamlica tower, the highest vantage point in the city inaugurated in recent months, from where the couple allegedly took the offending selfie. The story only emerged last Thursday when the Oknin daughter from Israel alerted local authorities, having lost track of her parents.