Ex-Knick Kanter’s father freed from Turkish prison
Enes Kanter’s father, a political prisoner in Turkey, has been released “due to the pressure we put on the Turkish regime,” according to his son.
Kanter tweeted the news Friday morning while announcing in capital letters – “MY DAD HAS BEEN RELEASED!”
“I could cry,” Enes wrote, adding that his father had been arrested seven years ago, dragged through a “Kangaroo court” and marked as a criminal “simply because he’s my dad.”
Enes vowed to keep fighting against the authoritarian Turkish government.
“They no longer could keep him from his freedom because of the spotlight that we all put on this case!” the Celtics center tweeted. “However! He is just one person, there are still tens of thousands of people wrongfully in jail in Turkey.
“I will not forget you, we will not forget you!”
Dr. Mehmet Kanter, a genetics professor in Istanbul, was reportedly sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2018. Enes, an outspoken critic of Turkish president Recep Erdogan, has long contended that his father was targeted for revenge and intimidation. Enes was also charged with terrorism in Turkey and faces prison if he’s ever apprehended by his home country. Kanter’s passport was revoked by Turkey but he is safe as long as he remains in the U.S., where he’s eligible for citizenship in 2021.
Enes Kanter’s biggest crime is speaking freely against Erdogan, who has tightened his authoritarian grip on the country by arresting those who don’t fall in line. Kanter has labeled Erdogan “the Hitler of our time,” among other things.
Mehmet was forced to publicly disown Enes in 2017.
“I reject Enes … as our son,” Mehmet wrote. “I apologize to our president and the Turkish people for the shame of having such a child.”
While with the Knicks in 2018, Kanter declined to travel to London for an overseas NBA game because he feared assassination by Turkish spies. Just last year, Enes said the Turkish government bullied a Mosque in Long Island into canceling his free youth basketball camp.
Despite all the dangers, Enes Kanter won’t stop.
“People don’t understand. They’re saying your family is still back in Turkey — why are you doing all of this? Why are you talking? I’m just trying to be the voice of all of these innocent people, man,” Kanter said in 2017. “Because all of these innocent people are just going through really tough times. Journalists, innocent people in jail getting tortured and killed and kidnapped. And it’s pretty messed up. And [the government] hates it. They hate when I talk to you guys in front of all of these cameras, these microphones. They hate it. That’s why they’re saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to take his dad away, we’re going to put him in prison.’ It doesn’t really bother me.”