NBA Player Enes Kanter Has Arrest Warrant Issued By Turkey For Alleged 'Terror Group' Links

Authorities in Turkey issued an arrest warrant for Oklahoma City Thunder basketball player Enes Kanter on the grounds that he belonged to a “terror group.” A judge issued the warrant after a prosecutor in Istanbul opened an investigation into Kanter’s “membership of an armed terrorist organization,” international news organization AFP reported Friday.

The arrest warrant said Kanter used encrypted messaging to proliferate his political views, according to Turkish news outlet the Daily Sabah. The NBA center reportedly backed Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in posts on social media. Gulen was alleged to have attempted to overthrow Erdogan in a failed coup last year. The encrypted messaging app Kanter was accused of using was known as Bylock, which Turkey said was made exclusively for use by followers of Gulen.

Read: What Is The Gulen Movement?

Gulen and his unofficial following, known as the Gulen Movement, was classified as a terrorist organization in Turkey. The cleric himself, who was formerly friends with Erdogan before they became bitter political rivals, was exiled to Pennsylvania where he currently remains.

Kanter, 25, was quoted in the AFP as having responded to the arrest warrant on Twitter in Turkish.

“You cannot catch me,” he wrote, according to the AFP’s translation. “Hahaha. Don’t waste your energy. I am already going to come to [Turkey] to spit on all of your ugly, hate-filled faces.”

Kanter has been in the NBA for six years where he’s spent time playing for Oklahoma City after getting drafted by the Utah Jazz. Kanter’s parents publicly disowned him over his political views and he said he had not spoken to them in a year, according to the Oklahoman. A Turkish citizen, Kanter was detained at an airport in Bucharest, Romania last week after Turkey invalidated his passport.

Kanter ended up flying to New York by way of London to get home. At the time of his detention, Kanter posted a video on Twitter comparing Turkish president Erdogan to Adolf Hitler.

“They [Turkey’s embassy] canceled my passport,” he said in a video posted on social media. “They’ve been holding us here for hours.”

Currently in possession of a green card that gave him Lawful Permanent Resident status in the United States, Kanter said earlier this week would be seeking permanent U.S. citizenship.

“Right now, I am country-less,” Kanter said, according to ESPN.com. “I am open to adoption definitely. I am going to try to become an American citizen. I have a green card. We will see if they can speed up the process a little bit. It would definitely be nice. Right now my next move is becoming an American citizen.”