Enes Kanter drama with Turkey continues

Enes Kanter continues to dominate headlines with his ongoing issues with Turkey.

The situation with Enes Kanter and his former country (Turkey) has been providing headlines for over a week now.

For those not familiar here is a timeline of events:

Kanter traveling to promote charity:

First of all, following the end of the season, Kanter began his global tour visiting several countries  conducting camps with children. Hence, he made stops in Japan and South Korea. Last week he was in the Philippines. While there was promoting his Enes Kanter Light Foundation.

Prior to the issues which occurred last weekend his goal was to continue his tour  with more camps planned abroad.

Related: Kanter ordeal teaches important life lesson

Kanter flees Indonesia:

Last weekend early Saturday morning (May 20), Enes Kanter had to flee Indonesia by the dead of night. His Manager arrived at his hotel room early in the morning to advise the Indonesian secret service were searching for him based on reports out of Turkey citing him as ‘dangerous’.

Kanter and his party grabbed an early morning flight to Bucharest.

Kanter passport revoked in Romania:

Upon arrival in Romania Kanter’s passport was revoked and he spent a good portion of his birthday under police watch. The reason he was given was Turkey had issued orders to hold him and again he was listed as ‘dangerous’.

It took the efforts of the NBA Players Association, the Oklahoma City Thunder, OKC’s lawyers and the US State Department to negotiate his departure. From there Kanter flew to London, England prior to returning back to the U.S. via New York on Monday.

TI provided the full update here.

https://twitter.com/Enes_Kanter/status/866335014320984064

Kanter entertains various media to discuss ordeal:

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Once safely back in the United States, Kanter held several interviews with various media outlets to discuss what occurred. TI covered his media conferences here.

Turkey issues arrest warrant for Kanter:

The most recent news has Turkey issuing an arrest warrant as per Mike Chiari of Bleacher Report.

"According to AFP (h/t Yahoo), pro-government Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reported the warrant is due to Kanter’s previous support on social media for Fethullah Gulen, who is alleged to have staged a failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year.Kanter is accused of using an encrypted messaging app called Bylock, which Turkey says was created for use by Gulen supporters."

Let’s be honest, this isn’t surprising given the Turkish government has to counteract the obvious platform Kanter has. Being an NBA athlete who is promoting free speech, human rights and his detachment from his family isn’t playing well for Turkey.

There are obvious issues with President Erdogan and Kanter bringing light to it isn’t helping. No doubt this isn’t the end to what has become a battle between Kanter and Erdogan which continues to play out in the media. Without a valid passport Kanter is in essence country-less.  While it’s unlikely anything Turkey does would elicit Kanter being sent back, Turkey has been successful in one regard. Without a passport Enes won’t be able to travel. In the interim Kanter hopes to fast track obtaining citizenship in America.

Stay tuned.