Knicks’ Kanter, Turkey situation intensifies

The feud between New York Knicks center Enes Kanter and his home country of Turkey intensified Wednesday.

Sabah, a Turkish newspaper, reported that Turkish prosecutors are seeking an international arrest warrant for Kanter, accusing him of belonging to a terrorist organization.

According to the report, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office has filed an extradition request and an Interpol red notice, which is a request to locate and arrest an individual pending extradition.

That could only be carried out by United States authorities if they were convinced Kanter had committed a crime that could be prosecuted in the U.S.

Kanter has been an outspoken critic of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and is a supporter of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish government accused of organizing a failed military coup in 2016.

Kanter responded to Wednesday’s report on Twitter, writing the “Turkish government can Not present any single piece of evidence of my wrongdoing . ... I don’t even have a parking ticket in the US (true).”

Kanter did not travel to London with the Knicks for their game against the Washington Wizards on Thursday because he feared he would be assassinated by Turkish spies.

“They’ve got a lot of spies there,” Kanter said earlier this month. “I can get killed very easy. That will be a very ugly situation.”

Kanter, whose passport was revoked in 2017 by the Turkish government, was detained at a Romanian airport the last time he traveled overseas.