Turkey is trying to have Kanter arrested
Turkish prosecutors are seeking an international arrest warrant for New York Knicks player Enes Kanter, accusing him of membership in a terror organization.
Sabah newspaper says the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office had also prepared an extradition request for the NBA player.
Kanter, who didn’t go with the Knicks for their game in London on Thursday. because he feared he could be killed over his opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, responded on Twitter that the Turkish government could not present “any single piece of evidence of my wrongdoing.”
“I don’t even have a parking ticket in the U.S.,” he wrote Wednesday.
Kanter has been an outspoken critic of Erdogan, and his Turkish passport was revoked in 2017.
This time, Sabah says prosecutors are seeking an Interpol “Red Notice” citing Kanter’s ties to exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for a failed coup in 2016, and accusing him of providing financial support to his group.
Kanter said he feared assassination if he left the U.S. or Canada when he announced last week that he wouldn’t travel to London with the Knicks, who play the Washington Wizards on Thursday. The team said at the time Kanter wouldn’t make the trip because of a visa issue.
Kanter denied that was the problem, even posting a photo of a travel document on social media, and made it clear his issue was his safety because of Erdogan, whom he has referred to as “the Hitler of our century.”