“You’re constantly looking left and right, you feel at risk,” the Israeli tourist said.
By World Israel News Staff
As the Israeli government issues repeated warnings to nationals of the Jewish State traveling or vacationing in Turkey to leave the country, an Israeli man spoke to Hebrew-language news about a tense interaction he had with an Iranian in Istanbul.
Lior Nazarov, who was vacationing in Turkey with his girlfriend, told Channel 12 News that the pair had cut their trip short in order to return home because they were concerned for their personal safety.
“You’re constantly looking left and right, you feel at risk,” Nazarov said.
He recounted the incident that triggered him to buy an earlier return ticket to Israel. He believes that an Iranian agent was scouting him as a potential target for kidnapping or murder.
“I was waiting for my girlfriend while she was trying on clothes at the mall, and a guy came up to me and asked where I was from. I said I was from Russia,” he told Channel 12.
“[The man] tried to continue the conversation, asking me if I live in Turkey. I said no. He asked if I live in Moscow, I said yes. He said ‘oh, nice place,’ and at that moment, his girlfriend left the dressing room.
“He then told me he was from Iran, I said ‘cool,’ and then he said goodbye and left…it was stressful.”
Nazarov’s interaction with the Iranian man comes on the heels of reports of thwarted terror plots targeting Israelis and orders from the Israeli government that all military staff currently in the country return to Israel immediately.
The Israeli government recommended that anyone associated with the IDF avoid transiting through Turkish airports as well.
Last week, some Israeli tourists received calls to their mobile phones from Israeli intelligence agencies imploring them to go to the airport immediately and return to Israel, without returning to their hotels to collect their belongings, because of immediate danger to their lives.
After a number of high-profile assassinations of Iranian scientists and aerospace engineers that have been widely attributed to the Mossad, Israeli officials fear that Iranians may take revenge by targeting Israeli nationals vacationing in Turkey.