Evangelist David Byle, arrested in Turkey and given 15 days to leave the country, has flown out of Istanbul and returned to the United States.

Byle was arrested the morning after US pastor Andrew Brunson was released and allowed to leave the country.

He had spent 19 years in Turkey as an evangelist and had been arrested several times. Previous deportations had been stopped by court rulings. He and his German wife Ulrike had raised their five children, now aged 12 to 19, in the country.

He was eventually expelled for overstaying his expired residence permit. He told World Watch Monitor that he was verbally informed by his interrogators that if he paid an over-stay fine when he left, he would not be issued a re-entry ban forbidding him to rejoin his family.

He said he had been 'painful' for him and his family to face ongoing intimidation by the Turkish authorities because 'they keep insisting that I am a threat to Turkey's national security'.

'We long to stay in Turkey with the people we have grown to love here, but we are resigned to do whatever God wants,' he added.

'Nevertheless, I was happy to take the many opportunities that arose this time to explain the good news of Jesus to various policemen.'