The reason for Erden Timur's detention has been revealed! Here is the behind-the-scenes of the investigation...

Recent consecutive operations have dominated Turkey's agenda. Fenerbahçe President Sadettin Saran, who was detained as part of a drug investigation involving famous figures that later spread to the media and sports community, was released under judicial control.

While the accusations against Saran continue to be debated in the public eye, a detention order was issued on the morning of December 26 for a total of 29 people, including 14 football players, as part of an investigation into illegal betting in football.

It was noted that former Galatasaray deputy chairman Erden Timur was among those detained as part of the investigation.

Cumhuriyet columnist Murat Ağırel provided information in his article regarding why Erden Timur was detained.

Ağırel recalled that he had previously addressed the incident based on the allegation of "money laundering," which is cited as the reason for accusing Timur, in his book titled "Kirli Çark" (The Dirty Wheel), and shared the conversation he had with Timur in the past.

The relevant section in Ağırel's article is as follows:

"According to information reflected in wiretaps and investigation files from 2016, it was determined that 24 apartments were purchased from the NEF 13 Merter project to launder money obtained from illegal betting activities.

It was understood that the buyer of these apartments was Veysel Şahin, who is being tried as an illegal betting baron.

It was determined that the payments were not sent from a single source, but in pieces to the NEF firm from accounts opened in the names of different people. It was assessed that this method was used to try to hide the source of the betting income. It also entered the file that in bank records, the phrases 'NEF 13 Merter Veysel Şahin' were written directly in the description section of some transfers. Moreover, the houses were purchased in the name of Veysel Şahin, and the contract was made in the name of Veysel Şahin. I saw these documents myself.

Before I published my book, I called Erden Timur and asked him about the issue in the name of journalistic ethics and to avoid appearing as if I were accusing him, and I received his explanation.

Erden Timur confirmed that the sale took place but explained that the true buyer of the residences was not known at that time, and that he became aware of the situation after the police operation. He said that most of the purchased apartments were 1+1 types, and when looking at the total square footage, this corresponded to two or three large apartments.

Erden Timur had explained the issue as follows:

'As I recall, it was right after this July 15, 2016 period. The police said, "We want to meet with Mr. Erden." We had Emre with us at the time. He had entered the meeting with the police with me, but the police said, "We want to meet alone." In the meeting, they said, "We investigated Veysel Şahin, he is someone like this, there is nothing about you, but this project is finished, if it is transferred, we will conduct an operation on him, but we are still collecting evidence. Our request from you is not to transfer these so that we can seize them; if you transfer them, we cannot seize them, they will sell them," they warned.'

In the statement he made to me at that time, Erden Timur stated that they have sold tens of thousands of residences to date, and that it is technically impossible for them to know the background of every buyer. He said that the purchase transactions were not made directly in the name of Veysel Şahin, but through people connected to him, and that this connection was revealed through the information provided by the police units."