Ex-NBA Star Defends Erdogan, Accuses Current Player of 'Smear Campaign'
The Recep Tayyip Erdogan regime in Turkey has been a global flashpoint for controversy, especially among Turkish citizens living abroad, and now that controversy has boiled over into the NBA.
Former Sacramento Kings and Orlando Magic standout forward Hedo Turkoglu, who is now president of the Turkish Basketball Federation as well as a top adviser to Erdogan, got into a war of words with current New York Knicks center Enes Kanter, ESPN reported Tuesday.
The back-and-forth started when Kanter announced he wouldn’t be joining the Knicks on a trip to London to take on the Washington Wizards in one of those overseas regular-season games that the NFL pioneered and the NBA has embraced as a way to grow its global brand.
Kanter’s reason? He’s an outspoken opponent of Erdogan — once referring to him as “the Hitler of our century” — and fears the regime would try to assassinate him.
“There’s a chance that I can get killed out there,” he said.
Enes Kanter says he’s not going to London with Knicks because he fears for his life due to “that freaking lunatic, the Turkish president. There’s a chance that I can get killed out there.” pic.twitter.com/NvRDSHWB4V
— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) January 5, 2019
That brought a response from Turkoglu, who pointed to the revocation of Kanter’s Turkish passport by Erdogan in 2017 as the real reason the Turkish citizen Kanter cannot travel outside the United States and Canada, where he plays basketball professionally on a work visa as a member of the Knicks.
“We know that (Kanter) has not been able to travel to many countries due to visa issues since 2017,” Turkoglu said in a statement posted to Twitter on Monday. “In other words, Kanter can’t enter the UK not because of fears for life as he claims but due to passport and visa issues. This being the long-known truth, he is trying to get the limelight with irrational justifications and political remarks.
“Such remarks constitute another example of the political smear campaign Kanter has been conducting against Turkey as well as his efforts to attribute importance to himself by covering up the contradictions in his sports career. … It is obvious that this person’s remarks are irrational and distort the truth.”
— Hidayet Türkoğlu (@hidoturkoglu15) January 7, 2019
In Portland on Monday, prior to the Knicks’ 111-101 loss to the Trail Blazers, Kanter fired back, calling Turkoglu Erdogan’s “lapdog.”
“It’s probably not (Turkoglu) but the president making him say it,” Kanter told reporters. “If you look at his Twitter, it’s German, English and Turkish. It’s three languages, and he doesn’t even know German. They’re probably making him do it. He’s kind of like (Erdogan’s) puppy dog. Lapdog is better. He probably got so much money for that.”
Kanter further attacked Turkoglu’s claim, posting a photo of his travel documents to Twitter in order to prove false Turkoglu’s “visa problem” allegation.
This is my travel document:
It’s NOT a visa issue!!!I CAN go to London.
Either you are delusional, or still Erdogan’s lap dog..
Keep wagging your tail@hidoturkoglu15
@RT_Erdogan #DictatorErdogan ?? pic.twitter.com/UpvEG24ayu— Enes Kanter (@Enes_Kanter) January 7, 2019
Last week, a Knicks official cited the visa issue as the reason Kanter wouldn’t travel to Europe, but Kanter said Monday that’s incorrect.
“They don’t understand the conversation, and it’s very confusing,” he said. “It’s not a visa issue. … I have a travel document. … I can travel.”
Knicks owner James Dolan stood by his player, saying Kanter’s fears are reasonable.
“I think it’s legitimate,” Dolan told reporters. “My people over there are assuring us there won’t be a problem, there won’t be a problem, but if I was him, I’d be concerned, too. I don’t blame him at all. I’m totally OK with it.”
Kanter was indicted in 2018 by the Istanbul Cyber Crimes Investigation Bureau for “hurtful and humiliating comments” about Turkoglu, who enjoys immunity from criticism as a highly placed member of the Erdogan regime in a place where freedom of speech is nonexistent.
Likewise, in 2017, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported that Erdogan is seeking a four-year prison sentence for Kanter for defamatory comments made against the regime, and Kanter has further been accused of supporting the coup d’etat attempted in 2016, allegedly by dissident Islamist Fethullah Gulen, who is now living in Pennsylvania after being declared an enemy of the Turkish state.
The failed coup strengthened Erdogan’s hold on power and created increased tensions between Turkey and the rest of the Western world that have boiled over into, of all things, a beef between two basketball players.
As for Kanter, at least he does have one silver lining.
He might not be able to shed the dark gloom of his home country declaring him a pariah, but with his name coming up in trade rumors, at least he might be able to shed the dark gloom of having to play for the Knicks.
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