Lukashenko's Son Found Himself At The Center Of A High-profile Scandal In Turkey
- 2.09.2026, 11:00
During a court hearing in Ankara, it was revealed that a Belarusian delegation had traveled to Bodrum.
One of Alexander Lukashenko’s sons—whose name is not disclosed in the case files—found himself at the center of a high-profile Turkish scandal: According to the investigation, for a trip to Bodrum, he and his accompanying security detail were provided with a vehicle equipped with a siren that was assigned to former Turkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Şahin. This information came to light from testimony given as part of an investigation into the activities of the “Suleimanists” religious movement, whose members are also suspected of organizing prostitution involving women brought from Belarus. This was reported by the Turkish publication halktv.com.
Shahin’s former advisor Ömür Yücel, who testified to investigators, said that an Audi Q7 with license plate number 34 EMT 156 was handed over to “Lukashenko’s son and the advance security team accompanying him” for a trip to Bodrum. According to Yücel, the flashing light had been removed from the vehicle beforehand—before it was handed over to the Belarusian delegation. Later, this vehicle was involved in a traffic accident. To ensure that the guests from Minsk were not left without transportation, they were provided with another official Audi Q7, also assigned to Shakhin.
The former minister himself confirmed during questioning that the vehicle had been handed over to a “delegation from Belarus” and stated that Yuzhel was the one who handled all organizational matters related to the Belarusian guests. “Recently, guests from Belarus have been using the car with my knowledge,” Shakhin told investigators.
A separate aspect of the case involves charges of organizing prostitution involving women from Belarus. According to a complaint filed back in 2011, one of the defendants in the case—Suleiman Hilmi Kalji, whom Shakhin described as a longtime acquaintance who conducts business in Belarus and maintains ties with Belarusian politicians—allegedly brought women from Belarus to Turkey to be used in prostitution rings. Shakhin stated that he had no knowledge of these allegations and emphasized that if the vehicles registered in his name were indeed used to transport women for these purposes, it was done without his knowledge.
Following the interrogation, which lasted about 3.5 hours, the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office demanded that pretrial measures be imposed on Shahin under two articles of the Turkish Penal Code—for aiding a criminal organization and harboring a criminal—as well as a ban on his travel abroad.
The investigation is ongoing: investigators intend to determine exactly who used the vehicles assigned to the former Turkish minister and for what purpose—including the incident involving the Belarusian leader’s son’s trip to Bodrum.