Turkey to Seek Extradition of NBA Player as Feud Escalates
Turkey to Seek Extradition of NBA Player as Feud Escalates
New York Knicks center Enes Kanter said he would refrain from traveling outside the U.S. for fear of being arrested
David Gauthier-VillarsJan. 15, 2019 5:55 p.m. ET
Prosecutors in Istanbul allege that Enes Kanter, a Turkish center for the New York Knicks, belongs to the movement of cleric Fethullah Gulen, which Turkey regards as a terrorist organization, and have sought government help to publicize an arrest warrant for Mr. Kanter through Interpol, a Turkish official said Tuesday.
The 26-year-old Mr. Kanter, who has been playing in the NBA since 2011, calls himself a “servant” of Mr. Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania. But the basketball player denies the organization of Mr. Gulen has had any involvement in terrorism-related activity. Mr. Gulen has denied playing any role in the failed coup.
Mr. Kanter said Tuesday that he didn’t fear Mr. Erdogan. “There is god and no sadness,” he said on Twitter shortly after Istanbul prosecutors announced they were seeking his extradition.
Yet Mr. Kanter said he would refrain from traveling outside the U.S. for fear of being arrested, and therefore wouldn’t accompany his team to London, where the Knicks are scheduled to play the Washington Wizards on Thursday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Tuesday. Photo: turkish president press office/EPA/Shutterstock
“Anyone who speaks out against Erdogan is a target,” Mr. Kanter said in another tweet on Tuesday. “That includes me.”
The developments mark a dramatic escalation in Mr. Kanter’s protracted feud with Mr. Erdogan, which traces to a 2016 incident, and provide a measure of the extent of Turkey’s efforts to prosecute sympathizers of Mr. Gulen.
Turkey has submitted a formal request to the U.S. seeking extradition of the 77-year-old cleric, but U.S. officials have said evidence Turkey provided didn’t meet the legal standard for extradition.
Messrs. Erdogan and Gulen were once allies. The Turkish leader leaned on the cleric’s movement to thrust scores of young graduates groomed by Mr. Gulen’s sprawling network of schools into the Turkish administration.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan pinned a July 2016 coup attempt that gripped the country on a self-exiled cleric living in the U.S. named Fethullah Gulen. Gulen denied any involvement. Here’s a closer look at this influential preacher. Photo: Associated Press (Originally published Jul7 18, 2016)
Since the 2016 failed coup, however, the Turkish leader has purged the state apparatus of tens of thousands of civil servants he suspects have had sympathy with Mr. Gulen. Mr. Erdogan has also ordered the national intelligence agency and other security institutions to pull out all stops in hunting for suspected Gulenists overseas. Turkey says it has snatched over 100 suspects through different operations in places ranging from nearby Kosovo to far-flung Malaysia.
“Rest assured that they will feel Turkey breathing down their neck,” Mr. Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, told reporters in September. “I cannot share any details but anything can happen anytime anywhere. Mr. President has given very clear instructions on this issue.”
Turkish authorities narrowly missed an opportunity to detain Mr. Kanter in 2017when he made a layover in Romania. He was detained at the airport because, unbeknown to the athlete, Turkey had canceled his passport and issued warrants for his arrest. With support from the U.S., Mr. Kanter managed to avoid being sent to Turkey.
The warrants stemmed from a pair of complaints that Mr. Erdogan and former NBA player Hidayet Turkoglu, who was known as “Hedo” during his basketball career, had filed against Mr. Kanter over alleged insults.
In spring 2016, Mr. Kanter had published a series of tweets praising Mr. Gulen and lambasting Messrs. Erdogan and Turkoglu. In one of his posts, he had written an acrostic about a snake and a thief which contained the letters of the president’s surname in large type. In another, he had mocked Mr. Erdogan for hiring Mr. Turkoglu as an adviser, asking if he would seek advice on “how to steal ball.”
An official with the Turkish presidency didn’t return messages seeking comment. Through a spokesman, Mr. Turkoglu declined to comment. In an op-ed article published in the Washington Post on Tuesday, Mr. Kanter said he knew that singling out the president of Turkey would land him in trouble but never thought it would reach such an extreme. The player has said the situation has left him estranged from his family living in Turkey.
While the two insult cases are pending, Messrs. Kanter and Turkoglu have continued sparring over social networks. Last week, when Mr. Kanter first announced that he wouldn’t go to London because he feared for his life, Mr. Turkoglu published a statement in English, German and Turkish accusing him of conducting a smear campaign against Turkey.
Write to David Gauthier-Villars at David.Gauthier-Villars@wsj.com
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at the end of the day its about skills can the cac play when it comes to sports. Knew a bunch of gang members growing up in the chi who know doing hard fukking time. 
