Enes Kanter is a famous Turkish basketball player and former NBA star for whom Turkey, due to his criticism of Erdogan’s regime, has issued an Interpol warrant and placed a bounty of $500,000 on his head!
Today he lives under 24-hour FBI protection due to death threats, and he hasn’t seen his family for more than 11 years because the President of Turkey, Erdogan, confiscated their passports, phones, and all electronic devices from their home.
-My father, who was one of the greatest Turkish scientists, was expelled from the university and arrested as a member of a terrorist organization, my sister cannot get a job, and my brother, who also plays basketball, had to flee Turkey to survive, says Kanter in an exclusive interview for Serbian Times and Serbian News USA.
His problems did not end there, as he was forced to abruptly end his NBA career, but not because of criticism of the Turkish regime, but – China!
-While I was speaking about the problems in Turkey, the NBA stood behind me; Adam Silver even held a press conference. However, the problems started when I began to criticize China for its treatment of the Uyghur minority. The NBA makes a huge profit from China; more people watch them there than the US has inhabitants, jerseys and sneakers are sold… They warned me not to talk about it, but I did not listen to them. And then February 2022 came, and everyone knew—my teammates, my manager—they told me my career was over. And that’s how it was. I was released from Houston and never again did any NBA team want to hire me, even though I was in full strength and excellent form, Enes Kanter recalls.
He spoke openly about everything he survived due to the conflict with the Turkish regime and President Erdogan, the NBA bosses, how he met Nikola Jokić and predicted he would become a big star, and much more in an interview he gave to our editor Antonije Kovačević.
Watch this exclusive and poignant interview, in which the celebrated basketball player could not hold back his tears…
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Author/Video: Antonije Kovačević Editing: Ivana Talijan