{"id":7027,"date":"2017-05-26T19:51:45","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T23:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=7027"},"modified":"2017-05-26T19:51:45","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T23:51:45","slug":"oklahoma-city-thunder-center-enes-kanter-wanted-in-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2017\/05\/26\/oklahoma-city-thunder-center-enes-kanter-wanted-in-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Enes Kanter Arrest Warrant Issued in Turkey for Terrorist Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Enes Kanter Arrest Warrant Issued in Turkey for Terrorist Ties<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; color: #222222;\">Multiple news outlets are reporting that Oklahoma City Thunder center <\/span><a style=\"font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kanteen01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Enes Kanter<\/strong><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; color: #222222;\"> is wanted in Turkey over alleged terrorist ties. The pro-Turkish government media outlet Daily Sabah is reporting that an arrest warrant has been issued in Turkey for the Thunder star&#8217;s arrest. <\/span><a style=\"font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/turkey-seeks-arrest-nba-star-kanter-report-134012079.html?soc_src=social-sh&amp;soc_trk=tw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">According to international news agency AFP<\/a><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; color: #222222;\">, a judge issued a warrant for Kanter\u2019s arrest on Friday after a prosecutor in Istanbul opened an investigation into Kanter\u2019s \u201calleged membership of an armed terrorist organization.\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Kanter responded to the report of the arrest warrant via Twitter.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"tr\" dir=\"ltr\">Yakalayamazs\u0131\u0131\u0131\u0131n!!!<br \/>Hahaha \ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02<br \/>Bo\u015funa yorulmay\u0131n.<br \/>Hepinizin o \u00e7irkin, nefret dolu suratlar\u0131n\u0131za t\u00fck\u00fcrmeye zaten kendim gelece\u011fim. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hw0LUp4MNo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/hw0LUp4MNo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Enes Kanter FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EnesFreedom\/status\/868019792866947072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 26, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>AFP translated Kanter&#8217;s Tweet\u00a0as saying \u201cYou cannot catch me. Hahaha. Don&#8217;t waste your energy. I am already going to come to (Turkey) to spit on all of your ugly, hate-filled faces.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Kanter&#8217;s Support of Fethullah Gulen\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The warrant for Kanter&#8217;s arrest is directly related to his support for exiled Muslim spiritual leader Fethullah G\u00fclen and his transnational religious and social movement (the &#8220;G\u00fclen movement&#8221;). G\u00fclen, who has spent the last 15 years in exile in the United States, is reportedly sought by the Turkish government for alleged involvement in the July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey aimed at ousting current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan.\u00a0The Turkish government\u00a0accuses G\u00fclen of ordering the failed coup and refers to G\u00fclen and his\u00a0movement as the &#8220;Fethullah Terrorist Organisation&#8221; (FETO).<\/p>\n<p>Kanter\u2019s arrest warrant\u00a0refers to Kanter&#8217;s alleged use of an encrypted messaging application which Turkey claims was especially created for G\u00fclen supporters.<\/p>\n<p>Kanter\u2019s support for G\u00fclen has caused him problems previously.\u00a0It is the root of an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-37024429\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ongoing rift <\/a>with his family.\u00a0Last summer, Kanter&#8217;s father announced to the Daily Sabah that the family was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysabah.com\/basketball\/2016\/08\/08\/gulenist-nba-player-kanter-disowned-by-family-for-ties-with-feto\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">disowning<\/a> him.<\/p>\n<p>Kanter&#8217;s support of G\u00fclen and criticisms of Erdo\u011fan have also\u00a0resulted in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/early-lead\/wp\/2017\/05\/22\/enes-kanter-says-he-has-been-getting-death-threats-and-wants-american-citizenship\/?utm_term=.88b17cff9614\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">numerous death threats<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Arrest Warrant Comes After Frightening Detention in Romania<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Kanter&#8217;s arrest warrant\u00a0caps off\u00a0a week full of frightening events. Kanter made news last weekend after being detained by police at a Romania airport on his way back to the U.S. The Turkish government reportedly revoked Kanter\u2019s passport. Kanter claimed the cancellation was due to his criticism of Erdo\u011fan. In a video he recorded while detained, Kanter referred to Erdogan as a \u201cbad, bad man\u201d and the \u201cHitler of our century.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I&#39;m being held at Romanian airport by Police!! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uYZMBqKx54\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/uYZMBqKx54<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Enes Kanter FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EnesFreedom\/status\/865920183361302528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 20, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Kanter eventually made it back to America, where he <a href=\"http:\/\/foxsportsradio.iheart.com\/onair\/the-doug-gottlieb-show-58593\/enes-kanter-talks-about-detainment-in-15856095\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">discussed the ordeal <\/a>with Fox Sport&#8217;s Radio&#8217;s Doug Gottlieb.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Grateful for American Support<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gioandjones.radio.cbssports.com\/2017\/05\/25\/kanter-i-love-being-in-america-am-grateful-for-support\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kanter also dropped by CBS Sports Radio post-detainment<\/a> to talk to Brian Jones and Gregg Giannotti\u00a0(\u201cGio &amp; Jones\u201d), about the political unrest in Turkey and his\u00a0May 23, 2017\u00a0Player\u2019s Tribune piece &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theplayerstribune.com\/enes-kanter-turkey-passport\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">They Can Take Away Your Country, Just Like That<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the interview, Kanter expressed how grateful he was for the support shown him by the American people. \u201cOne thing (that) really made me happy and amazed me, when I tweeted and (said) I\u2019m finally in America, people started to say, \u2018Welcome home,\u2019\u201d Kanter shared. \u201cWhen they said \u2018Welcome home,\u2019 that (meant) a lot to me \u2013 because those were . . . American people (who) I didn\u2019t even know. I have no idea who they are. They were just supporting me. They said, \u2018Welcome home. This is your home now. Don\u2019t worry about it. We\u2019ll take care of you.\u2019 That\u2019s why I love being here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 25 year old Kanter\u00a0has told reporters\u00a0that given recent events he intends to pursue American citizenship, and recently shared his love for the country on social media.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Well!!<br \/>Hello<br \/>The most beautiful country in the world.<br \/>The United States Of America \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 \u2764\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FBPurW17AT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/FBPurW17AT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Enes Kanter FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EnesFreedom\/status\/866335014320984064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 21, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Right now I am country-less,&#8221; Kanter said at the National Basketball Players Association headquarters in Manhattan, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/19472840\/turkish-government-issues-arrest-warrant-enes-kanter-oklahoma-city-thunder-newspaper-reports\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">according to ESPN<\/a>. &#8220;I am open to adoption definitely. I am going to try to become an American citizen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Can Kanter Be Extradited?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The United States does have an extradition treaty with Turkey, which begs the question,\u00a0can Kanter\u00a0be extradited?<\/p>\n<p>Under\u00a0its extradition agreement with Turkey, the United States can only extradite a person if he or she has committed an &#8220;extraditable act.&#8221; Extraditable offenses, pursuant to the provisions of this Treaty, do not include acts of political character or political opinions.\u00a0 Based on reports on this story to date, Turkey has not requested extradition. However, even if it did, it would appear Kanter does not meet\u00a0extradition requirements.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\ndiv class=&#8221;getty embed image&#8221; style=&#8221;background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:&#8217;Helvetica Neue&#8217;,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:445px;&#8221;&gt;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/613077186\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 133.483146% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/613077186?et=kE4QfQA_T6JEZIrITfVSvw&amp;tld=com&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=Ay2vVmoOhI1hmd9adCovGu8Ov-oCgESFP_dAviNCZ8Y=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"445\" height=\"594\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Enes Kanter arrest warrant has been issued in Turkey for his alleged terrorist ties. The Oklahoma City Thunder center remains a controversial citizen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1670,"featured_media":7038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,62,3,22],"tags":[164,96,202,54],"class_list":["post-7027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","category-thunder","tag-enes-kanter","tag-nba","tag-nba-news","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder"],"modified_by":"Harrison Marcus","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1670"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}