Turkey threatens to imprison Knicks’ Kanter over criticism
Turkey’s state-run news agency reported Tuesday that prosecutors there are seeking a lengthy prison term for New York Knicks centre Enes Kanter on charges that he insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The indictment, which asks that the Turkish national serve a prison term of longer than four years, is based on a series of tweets he posted in May and June 2016, according to The Associated Press.
Kanter has long been a critic of the Erdogan regime and has expressed support for Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric whom Erdogan blamed for a failed coup attempt last year. Gulen, who has denied any involvement in and condemned the plot, is living in exile in the United States.
In May, Kanter was detained at the airport in Bucharest, Romania, while on a worldwide tour for the Enes Kanter Foundation, which provides meals and clothing to the needy worldwide. He said the Turkish embassy had revoked his passport, which he described as a common tactic and an attempt to get critics of the Erdogan regime deported back to Turkey for punishment. With help from the Oklahoma City Thunder — his then-NBA team — the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and both Oklahoma senators, he was able to travel to London and then on to New York.
“You guys need to know what is going on in Turkey right now,” Kanter wrote on the Players’ Tribune earlier this year, after his airport scare.
“I hope people around the world will open their eyes to the human rights abuses. Things have got very bad over the last year. This is not my opinion. We don’t know everything that is happening inside Turkey, but we do know some facts. Newspapers and media have been restricted. Academics have been fired. Peaceful protesting is not allowed. Many people have been imprisoned without any real charges. There are reports of torture and rape and worse.”
The Turkish government reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Kanter after the airport incident, accusing him of membership in a “terror group.” Kanter was further defiant in the Players’ Tribune piece:
“I want you guys to think about what the Turkish government means when they say that I am a ‘dangerous’ man,” Kanter said in his essay. “I’ve never broken any laws. No speeding tickets, nothing. But I’m dangerous? Why?
“I speak my mind about things that I believe in,” he wrote. “I always have. I share my thoughts on Twitter and Facebook about the terrible things that are being done to people in Turkey. I want the whole world to know about the human rights abuses that are going on there. To the Erdogan government, this makes me a dangerous man.”
It seems unlikely that the United States would ever extradite Kanter.