Turkey finds Israeli soldiers via Facebook

ISTANBUL – The Turkish secret service made a list of 174 names of Israeli soldiers involved in the attack on the Mavi Marmara aid ship to Gaza last year, using Facebook to identify them. In that incident nine Turkish citizens died and about thirty people were wounded. Daily newspaper Sabah published the list on Monday, along with the pictures of the commandos.

A Turkish public prosecutor requested the list, and the secret service used Facebook to put it together. First images of during and after the attack where examined second by second, and based on that the search on Facebook was started. Video material was compared with pictures, Facebook text was examined and friends’ lists analysed. Eventually 148 faces were tagged to a name. As well, the list contains the names of five senior commanders. Images of two commanders and ten soldiers couldn’t be Facebook-tagged to a name.

The list will be sent to the Israeli authorities asking whether it’s true these soldiers and commanders were involved in the raid on the Mavi Marmara. What happens next remains unclear. According to IHH, the aid organization that organized the Mavi Marmara voyage, the Turkish prosecutor can issue an arrest warrant, and arrest soldiers if they ever come to Turkey.

The Turkish authorities consider Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as mainly responsible for the attack on the ship. The relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated since the event, and recently reached an all-time low after Israel again refused to apologize for it.