In Monday, a message addressed to a businessman brought a fresh Cyprus allegation into the controversy surrounding jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. It claimed the two had been close during İmamoğlu's Beylikdüzü mayoralty and warned that land matters were attracting attention. Public records point to a hotel and casino businessman in the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkish archives carry the same name in older Beylikdüzü land disputes. Whether those records concern the same man, and whether an official investigation now connects them, remains unconfirmed.
The Levant Files | Special Report
5 October 2026
A Warning With No Names Behind It
The message offers a warning. It supplies few particulars.
In the excerpt supplied for this report, dated 5 October 2026 and linked to Kıbrıs Postası's column “Seçmenin ilk şartı istihdam”, Gültekin is asked whether he knows that his alleged closeness to İmamoğlu during the Beylikdüzü years and unspecified land matters are under scrutiny. The passage suggests that people have begun working like detectives and advises him to take precautions.
There is no prosecutor's name. No parcel number. No indication of where an inquiry might be taking place.
That leaves a substantial gap between the wording of the message and the claim that İmamoğlu's prosecution has formally reached Cyprus. The people supposedly examining the land could be investigators, journalists or private individuals. The excerpt does not tell us which.
The Businessman Behind the Name
The strongest match in the local record is Ömer Gültekin, the businessman associated with hotels, casinos and Çam Tour Leisure & Development. His business history fits the setting of the warning, although the passage gives no company name or identifying detail that conclusively establishes whom it addresses.
Gültekin was already a visible investor in northern Cyprus (not effectively controlled northern territories by the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus) in 2011. A TAK news agency report carried by Haber Kıbrıs identified him as Ceasars chairman at the reopening of the Saray Hotel in northern Nicosia. Derviş Eroğlu and İrsen Küçük attended in their then capacities as the “TRNC” president and prime minister. Ceasars Ltd had brought the hotel back into operation.
By 2019, Star Kıbrıs described Gültekin as the owner of Saray Hotel and Liman Hotel Casino, with another hotel under construction in Gönyeli and a fourth planned in Bafra. Those descriptions establish what was reported at the time. They cannot settle who owns the properties today.
A more direct record comes from the Turkish Red Crescent's announcement of 3 February 2020. It identified Gültekin as the owner of Çam Tour and Leisure Development in northern Cyprus and recorded a donation of 300,000 Turkish lira for emergency accommodation for displaced people in Idlib.
Later that year, his company holding changed. A reproduced cabinet decision published on 7 October 2020 approved the transfer of his entire listed holding of 328,582,000 shares in Çam Tour Leisure & Development to İbrahim Seyfittinoğlu, Mehmet Necati Yağcı and Zafer Taahhüt İnşaat ve Ticaret A.Ş. The company held preliminary permission for a casino operating concession.
The date matters. Describing Gültekin as the company's present owner on the strength of the earlier donation announcement would overlook that approved transfer.
Beylikdüzü's Older Land Disputes
The Turkish archives offer a lead worth following. They also contain a trap for anyone reading too quickly.
A Büyükhaber article published on 5 December 2015 named “Ömer Gültekin and partners” in an accusatory account of a Beylikdüzü land exchange. It discussed an approximately 92,012-square-metre site that, according to the article, İmamoğlu later put out to tender.
But the disputed exchange itself was attributed to municipal decisions taken on 31 October 2005, under AKP mayor Vehbi Orakçı. İmamoğlu became mayor in 2014. The exchange and the subsequent handling of the land belong to different administrations, separated by years.
The article therefore puts the name Gültekin and İmamoğlu's municipality into the same land history. It does not prove a friendship, establish that the named landowner is the Cyprus hotel businessman or show that this is the land mentioned in today's warning.
An even earlier Yeni Şafak report from 15 August 2004 named an Ömer Gültekin in allegations involving Beylikdüzü land and former local officials. That account predates İmamoğlu's mayoralty by a decade. The underlying investigative documents and subsequent judicial outcomes would be needed to assess its allegations, alongside evidence confirming the identity of the man it names.
The alleged closeness remains unverified. The sources reviewed for this report yielded no authenticated correspondence, joint company record, contract or meeting record establishing the relationship described in the supplied message.
The Fatal Accident in Gönyeli
Gültekin's name also appears in reporting about the death of a construction worker in northern Cyprus.
In February 2019, Beyazit Temiz died after falling at a Gönyeli hotel construction site. Haber Kıbrıs reported that Gültekin and subcontractor representative Cumhur Kurukızılcık were arrested and subsequently released on bail. Its court account described police allegations that necessary safety precautions had been missing.
Gültekin disputed the accusations in his interview with Star Kıbrıs. The sources reviewed here do not establish the final judicial outcome. Nor do they connect that workplace-safety case to İmamoğlu or the land matters now being mentioned.
The Flight From Cyprus and the Ownership Question
For readers following the İmamoğlu controversy, Cyprus already carries another association: the private jet allegations that filled Turkish headlines earlier this year.
In its 23 January 2026 account, Yeni Şafak described testimony attributed to Ziver Air owner Veysel Demirci concerning flights from Istanbul to Ercan on 28 October 2022 and back on 30 October. The newspaper reported that additional passengers boarded in northern Cyprus, including Selen Görgüzel and Rabia Karaca. It placed Fatih Keleş and Murat Gülibrahimoğlu within the wider controversy.
Those details depend on the newspaper's account of testimony and flight records. This report has not independently authenticated the underlying documents.
January coverage also carried allegations of drug use and sexual conduct during the journey. They were attributed to witness statements. Their publication does not establish that İmamoğlu was aboard, knew about the alleged conduct or participated in it.
Then there is the aircraft itself. Türkiye Gazetesi's interview with Demirci identified it as Ziver Air's TC-VED, a Bombardier CRJ-850. Demirci described a broker arrangement involving Global Jet and WW Havacılık, with a reported €22,751 charge for the disputed flight. He also said he had never met İmamoğlu or allocated an aircraft to him.
T24's reporting likewise identified Ziver Air as the owner at the relevant time, challenging the description of the aircraft as “İmamoğlu's jet.” A charter arrangement requires separate examination from ownership. So does the conduct of individual passengers.
No flight source reviewed for this article establishes a link to Gültekin or the land mentioned in the October warning. That connection would need evidence of its own.
Inside the Continuing Turkish Case
İmamoğlu remains caught in a sprawling prosecution and several separate proceedings.
His main corruption trial opened on 9 March 2026 with more than 400 other defendants, as the Associated Press reported from Istanbul. He denies wrongdoing. His supporters see the proceedings as an attempt to sideline Erdoğan's principal electoral challenger. The government maintains that the judiciary is independent.
Human Rights Watch's assessment described the mass prosecution as politically motivated and raised concerns about its evidentiary basis and the detention of defence lawyers. It also recorded that İmamoğlu was acquitted in September 2024 in a separate tender-rigging case concerning his 2014–2019 Beylikdüzü mayoralty. That acquittal concerns a specific case. It cannot be treated as a ruling on every land controversy associated with the district.
The latest main-trial update verified for this report was dated 1 October. An Anadolu Agency report carried by Türkiye Gazetesi said four defendants were released at the 91st hearing, leaving 53 in detention. Further defence statements were scheduled for Monday, 5 October. The outcome of that scheduled hearing has not been established for this article.
The other cases continue on their own tracks. Medyascope published İmamoğlu's defence from the political-espionage hearing on 29 September, during which he challenged the prosecution and his continued detention. A separate proceeding over alleged misuse of his official vehicle during the Beylikdüzü period was adjourned to 23 October, according to Independent Türkçe.
His diploma prosecution brings Cyprus into the story through a different route. The indictment described by Anadolu Agency challenges his transfer from a college in northern Cyprus to Istanbul University and alleges official-document forgery. İmamoğlu disputes the allegations. Medyascope reported that the criminal case was adjourned to 25 December 2026.
Education, municipal land and a chartered flight have each brought Cyprus into coverage of İmamoğlu. The sources reviewed do not establish that they form a single chain of events.
The Documents Still Missing
The new warning leaves a practical question hanging over Gültekin: what, exactly, is being examined?
A land-registry record could identify the property. Municipal decisions could establish when it changed hands and which administration approved the transaction. A statement from an investigating authority could confirm whether an official inquiry exists. Gültekin's response could address the alleged relationship with İmamoğlu.
Until those pieces emerge, the available record supports a limited finding. A businessman named Ömer Gültekin has a documented hotel and casino history in northern Cyprus. Turkish archives place the same name in older Beylikdüzü land disputes. The supplied message joins those subjects through an allegation of personal closeness. The evidence needed to confirm that allegation, and to establish a new Cyprus branch of the Turkish case, has yet to be produced.
Reporting Note: Public sources were reviewed on 5 October 2026. The mentioned message and timestamp come from the supplied excerpt. Identity matches across separate historical records remain unconfirmed. No direct responses were obtained from Gültekin or İmamoğlu's representatives for this article.