An athlete from Turkey has been released on restrictive terms after being accused of maintaining an extramarital relationship with Ekrem Imamoğlu, as well as participating in a drug trafficking ring. The volleyball player stated in her testimony that she visited Imamoğlu 3-4 times at his hotel in Ankara. “In 2023, I transferred to Antalya. At that time, I didn’t see Ekrem Imamoğlu at all. However, when I transferred to the PTT team, I visited Imamoğlu 3-4 times at the hotel where he was staying,” she characteristically claimed.
Turkey: The athlete had previously admitted to having Imamoğlu’s phone number
Subsequently, she was released on restrictive terms. It should be noted that Çayırgan had previously admitted in an interview that among her phone contacts she has many well-known footballers and athletes, but from politics she has Ekrem Imamoğlu’s phone number. As reported by Manolis Kostidis, attempts were made to create impressions that she was closer to Imamoğlu due to the contacts she had with him and some favor her family received for a period in 2023. Indeed, according to SKAI, the favor to her family was related to the fact that the apartment building where she lived would be rebuilt with earthquake protection, and family members moved to facilities of the Istanbul Municipality.
Voleybolcu Derya Çayırgan’ın telefonunda kayıtlı ünlü siyasetçi;
• Ekrem İmamoğlu
— Sağcı Gazete (@sagcigazete) May 6, 2025
