[12] She participated at the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women's U23 World Championship in Slovenia with the Turkey U23 team, which became the champion of the tournament.

The Instagram post was published by the conservative newspaper Takvim, which called her sexual orientation and relationship "scandalous", which in turn led to her being subjected to homophobic slurs on social media.

[16][17] Turkish televangelist Ahmet Mahmut Ünlü criticized her by saying that he "wonder[ed] what kind of troubles she could gather on [Turks]".

[17] The Turkish National Volleyball Federation spokesperson Kurtaran Mumcu supported Karakurt and criticized the homophobic comments directed at her.

Demet Akalın, Eda Erdem Dündar and Naz Aydemir were among the people that have shown support to Karakurt.