The Israel Defense Forces have launched Turkish-language accounts on the social media platform X and the messaging app Telegram, saying the accounts will provide “reliable and real-time updates” about military developments, the Diken news website reported on Wednesday.
Israil Savunma Kuvvetleri’nin resmi X hesabına hoş geldiniz! Bu platform, ISK ile ilgili gelişmeler hakkında güvenilir ve anlık güncellemeler sağlamak amacıyla kullanılacaktır. pic.twitter.com/EknF0c6xno
— IDF Türkçe (@TurkishIDF) March 4, 2025
In its first video post on X, a member of the Israeli military addressed viewers in Turkish, saying, “Hello, Turkey. Welcome to the official X account of the Israel Defense Forces. This platform will be used to provide reliable and real-time updates on developments in the region. Follow us.”
The account’s launch was announced by Arye Shalicar, a German-born Persian Jew and a former IDF spokesperson. His past has attracted renewed attention following the IDF’s move to engage with a Turkish audience.
According to a 2013 report by The Times of Israel, Shalicar was involved in gang activity in his youth. The report says he was a founder of the “Berlin Crime” graffiti gang and kept his studies a secret from other members. In an interview at the time, Shalicar said, “I got involved in crime, joined gang life. All kinds of things. The usual things gangs do.”
A separate report by the Berlin-based Tagesspiegel described Shalicar as having led a gang in Berlin’s criminal underworld. The report said he had stabbed someone linked to his gang and had been involved in drug trafficking. It also said he never left home at age 17 without a gun, knife or brass knuckles and described himself as “a hardcore Zionist.”
The IDF’s expansion into Turkish-language social media has sparked widespread criticism, with many users on X drawing attention to Shalicar’s past and questioning Israel’s motives behind the move.
Anti-Israel sentiment has been running high in Turkey since Israel began pounding Gaza in retaliation for an unprecedented attack by militant group Hamas in the south of Israel on October 7, 2023 that claimed around 1,200 lives. The death toll in Gaza, in the meantime, has exceeded 48,400, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch concluding that Israel’s actions amount to genocide.