For many years now, Enes Kanter has been a vocal critic of the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Kanter has accused Erdoğan’s authoritarian regime of humanitarian violations and oppression against its own people, as well as ties to various terrorist organizations in the region.
Because of that, Kanter has received numerous death threats and has been prevented from traveling overseas as the Turkish government issued an international warrant for his arrest. In addition, Kanter has been estranged from his family, members of which have been forced to publicly denounce him for fear of retaliation.
His father, Mehmet Kanter, a professor, has been held under accusations of terrorist affiliations by the Turkish government and in 2018 was sentenced to 15 years in prison. But the younger Kanter and several news outlets on Friday reported that his father has been acquitted and released.
1) Wow!
I could cry
Today I found out that 7 years after arresting my dad, taking him through a Kangaroo court and accusing him of being a criminal just because he is my dad.MY DAD HAS BEEN RELEASED!
This is due to the pressure we have put on the Turkish regime.— Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) June 19, 2020
2) They no longer could keep him from his freedom because of the spotlight that we all put on this case!
However! He is just one person, there are still tens of thousands of people wrongfully in jail in Turkey.
I will not forget you, we will not forget you!
— Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) June 19, 2020
It’s clear Kanter will continue to be a vocal figure against Erdoğan’s regime, despite widespread intimidation tactics, because as he laid out, there are plenty of other individuals he believes have been wrongly imprisoned by the Turkish government. Kanter has also thrown his support behind the Black Lives Matter movement, attending several rallies in recent weeks to protest police violence.