The wife of the ousted mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu - Dilek, has made her first comment after the news of the detention of her brother Ali Kaya as part of an investigation into drug use, BTA reported.
„Get your hands off my family! First, my dear husband Ekrem İmamoğlu and his colleagues were targeted. Then our families... We are fighting with great patience and responsibility to prevent what is happening from turning into a showy campaign, waged „on the backs of our families“. However, our family is insistently drawn into this process. After my father-in-law, my children and my brother, now my other brother“, wrote Dilek İmamoğlu on her official profile on the network “Ex“
Dilek İmamoğlu defined what is happening as a smear campaign in which all kinds of slander are used for political purposes.
“This is incompatible with conscience, with law, with humanity. The presumption of innocence and the right not to be tarnished are basic and inviolable principles of the rule of law. They cannot be eroded due to arbitrariness and political motives. No process in which families are targeted in order to exert pressure is legitimate“, said Dilek İmamoğlu.
In her publication, she emphasizes that the law is exercised with evidence, not rumors.
Ali Kaya was detained this morning along with 19 other people. The arrests are part of an operation that the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has been conducting for several months against the use and distribution of drugs, which has also affected a number of famous people. Twenty-seven people have already been detained on charges of “possession of drugs or stimulants for personal use“, “facilitating drug use“, “inducing prostitution, pimping and providing a place for it“.
The large-scale operations against the distribution and use of drugs against a number of actors, singers, producers and athletes began in October 2025, when the first celebrities were detained.
One of the latest cases is from late January 2026, when Turkish actor Doğukan Güngör, known for his leading role in the popular Turkish series “Blueberry Sherbet“ (Kızılcık Şerbeti), was removed from the series after testing positive for drugs.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was removed from office last year after being arrested on corruption charges in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.