New York Knicks center Enes Kanter has been at odds with the Turkish government for quite some time. Kanter, a native of Turkey, has criticized the country's current regime several times, and in fact, he's becoming an advocate of sorts for the removal of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Kanter, now 26 years of age, has been chatised by Erdogan for his support of the Gulen movement, which, according to its description, is a transnational Islamic social movement that professes advocation of universal access to education, civil society, and peace, inspired by the religious teachings of Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish preacher who has lived in the United States since 1999.
Erdogan, who blames the Gulen movement for a failed coup, is planning a trip to New York City. Diamond Lueng of The Athletic recently spoke with Kanter to ask him if he plans on doing any activism work while the Turkish President is in town.
Q: Do you plan to do anything surrounding Erdogan’s upcoming trip to New York? I know you’re busy at training camp.
A: I’m not going to because the season’s about to start. But people out there can use #erdoganout. You can’t really do nothing about it, but I just want to create an awareness of what people are going through in Turkey and what all these innocent people have been through. Just pray for them because that’s all you can do.
Thousand of innocent people have been unlawfully jailed or detained on Erdogan's watch, including women, children, and journalists. Some journalists — over 3,000, to be exact — have been fired under this authoritarian regime for speaking out against it.
Last year, a Turkish prosecutor requested that Enes Kanter be jailed for up to four years for insulting Erdogan. Kanter’s passport was later revoked by Turkish authorities, and an arrest warrant was issued after he was named a “fugitive” by a Turkish court for his support of Gulen.
There is no doubt that Kanter has more to say about the Gulen movement, but at this time, it seems he wants to focus on the upcoming season.
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