A Turkish journalist who was held captive in Syria for two months said Monday that he was intensely interrogated while blindfolded by Syrian authorities who suspected he was a spy and wondered why his government was trying so hard to release him.

Adem Ozkose, a writer for Turkey's Milat newspaper, also told The Associated Press in an interview that his Syrian captors heaped insults on Turkish leaders, saying they were working for the Americans and had betrayed Syria.

"'You're working for the Americans,'" Ozkose quoted his captors as saying. "'You abandoned us.'"

Ozkose and a colleague, cameraman Hamit Coskun, flew home to Turkey this weekend after Iran, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, helped to secure their release. Turkey, a NATO member that once had warm ties with Syria, has since closed its embassy and demands, along with its Western and Arab allies, that Assad resign because of his bloody crackdown on the opposition.