On Wednesday (Jan. 16), the Turkish government announced their efforts to seek an international arrest warrant for the extradition of New York Knicks center Enes Kanter.
According to Turkey's Sabah newspaper, Kanter is accused of having ties to the Hizmet movement and providing financial funding to the group that allegedly organized a failed 2016 coup. As a result, the Istanbul's chief prosecutor is seeking an INTERPOL "red notice" that will force American authorites to arrest Kanter while his pending extradition is being processed. Yet, for this to be possible, the U.S. government would have to prove that Kanter was supporting Hizmet's illegal activities while living inside U.S. borders.
Kanter took to Twitter to deny the claims of his birth country and declare his innocence as a "law abiding citizen."
Kanter's fued with the Turkish governement began when he started to openly support Hizmet's exiled religous leader Fethullah Gulen before, during, and after the coup. This has led to several issues that even resulted in his Turkish passport being snatched. It has also brought serious assassination threats that prevented Kanter from traveling to London with the Knicks. Now, Kanter is one of 80 Gulen sympathizers for which Turkey has been seeking extradition since Nov. 2018.
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