Stefan Aristidou landed at Larnaca airport, on the south-east coast of Cyprus, on 5 April 2015. Seven days later he went missing.

Back in the UK, his family heard nothing from him for two years, despite issuing desperate appeals through missing persons charities and on social media.

This week the British national resurfaced in the Turkish town of Kilis, three miles from the Syrian border and around 43 miles from Aleppo.

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Aristidou, who grew up in the leafy suburb of Enfield, in north London, is understood to have told Turkish authorities that he had travelled to Syria not to fight with any group but to “settle” – in Raqqa, the de facto capital of Islamic State.

He was picked up with a British woman of Bangladeshi origin identified as his wife. An American man was also detained.

A spokeswoman for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said: “We are in contact with the Turkish authorities following the detention of a British man on the Turkey/Syria border.

Around 850 so-called foreign fighters have travelled from the UK to Syria and Iraq to fight with Islamic State or other jihadi groups such as al-Nusra Front, and in some cases to join the civil war against the regime of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. It is believed around half of these fighters have returned to the UK and around 200 have died.

Aristidou, who is of Cypriot heritage, grew up in Gordon Hill in Enfield, on a tree-lined street, close to the Chase Farm hospital, in middle-class surroundings.He lived with his mother, Maria, a complementary therapist, who has a degree from Middlesex University and is working towards a PhD, and sister Stasia, who works as a logistics coordinator for a major oil firm. The family have lived in the semi-detached house for more than 20 years.His father, Aristos, who works for a telecoms utility firm and studied at the Open University, moved out of the family home after he and his wife separated but still lives in London.

Neighbours told the Guardian that shortly before going missing Stefan changed his style of clothing, adopting Islamic dress and started attending a mosque.

One person who asked not to be named said Maria and Stasia were quiet neighbours and never spoke about Stefan after he went missing.

But she added: “I had a feeling he had gone somewhere like that. He suddenly started wearing Islamic clothing shortly before he went missing. We would see him leave on his own. Before then he dressed in western clothes, jeans, you knowll