Basketball player falls foul with Erdogan
Wednesday 22/May/2019 - 01:53 PM
Mohamed Abdelghaffar
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is always intolerant to criticism. He does everything possible to suppress the opposition, regardless of whether it is inside his country or outside it.
There are many instances of opponents who were suppressed by the Turkish ruler. Turkish scholar Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the US, is one case in point. Erdogan's government ratchets up pressure on Washington to hand Gulen over to it, having leveled a series of charges against him.
Erdogan puts thousands of opponents in jail on charges of participating in the presumed coup against him. This was how he silenced all opposition voices in his country.
Nonetheless, the Turkish president is far from satisfied. He wants to impose more dictatorial measures to totally deprive his people of the right to express themselves.
This time is setting his sights on Turkish basketball player Enes Kanter who plays for Portland Trail Blazers in the US. Kanter had recently demanded protection from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to the US news network ESPN. The channel said the FBI and the player take threats by the Turkish president seriously. This was why the FBI has installed a panic button for the player at home for fear of being assassinated.
Kanter's team is also afraid that the player can open himself up to arrest and subsequent investigation if he travels outside the US because of the presence of an arrest warrant against him. The warrant was requested from Interpol by the Turkish president.
US Senator Ron Wyden has already stepped in by demanding protection for the basketball player if he travels to Canada with his team. Wyden also called for overlooking the red card issued Kanter by Interpol.
Kanter's conflict with Erdogan dates back to 2017, when the player spoke against the practices of the Turkish president and his party against Turkish citizens. This came hard on the heels of the presumed 2016 coup against Erdogan.
Kanter described the Turkish president as a "dictator" and a person who is not in his right mind. He even considered Erdogan to be the Adolf Hitler of the current century.
The Turkish prosecution countered by submitted a request for Kanter's handover to Turkey on charges of humiliating the Turkish president.
