New Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter has long been in a dispute with the Turkish government, which revoked his passport two years ago. AP
CANTON, Mass. — Many of the best basketball players on earth are great because they have turned to the sport as a haven.
But Enes Kanter needs the sport as a shield from his relationship with the Turkish government, which has declared him a terrorist because of his ongoing criticism of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his support of Fethullah Gulen, an exiled opposition leader living in Pennsylvania.
Gulen was accused of leading an attempted coup of Erdogan in 2016, and the Turkish consulate used that language last week during a phone call to UMass-Boston officials while attempting to cancel Kanter’s basketball camp on the school’s campus.
Though a representative from the consulate used words like “terrorist” and “coup” while trying to derail the new Celtics center’s 50th camp of the summer, UMass-Boston officials denied the request and the camp went on. The Turkish government, which revoked Kanter’s passport in 2017, is not giving up. Similar camps in Long Island and Dallas were successfully shut down.
By the time Kanter showed up for Celtics media day Monday, he was asking an eternal question.
“Why?”
Kanter asks this question each time he departs his refuge.
When asked if he’s been embraced by the local Turkish community, he frowned.
“There’s two kinds of Turkish community – my side and the other side. (I’m not embraced by) the other side,” he said. “It’s sad because I had a basketball camp two days ago and the Turkish consul tried to cancel the basketball camp. It was sad. Why? Why would you do that? But there’s a Turkish cultural center here, so I hang out with those guys.”
Kanter later said that Turkish representatives have even attempted to influence his ability to attend the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, his new mosque.
“They ask how is Enes coming to the biggest mosque in Boston so comfortably. He shouldn’t,” Kanter said. “I talked to the Imam there and he said everyone can come to the house of God. So I put it out there that I have a basketball camp, and a couple of times the Turkish government tried to cancel camps in Long Island and Dallas, and they did.
“In Boston we did the camp, and after that, the athletic director came and said, ‘Hey, the consulate called here and tried to cancel the camp, and we said no.’ Then they called student affairs. Why would they want to?”
Ceylan Ozen Erisen, the Turkish consul general in Boston, disputed Kanter’s account, saying she only contacted UMass-Boston athletic director Charlie Titus at the request of a group called the New England Turkish Student Association. Ozen Erisen said the student group made the original request. She also called Kanter a “liar.”
“We know Enes very well,” she said. “He’s a chronic and pathological liar. We didn’t try to cancel anything. Some Turkish students at UMass-Boston were very uncomfortable that he was going to be on their campus. They asked me for support, and that’s what I did.
“He says he speaks for the Turkish people, but it’s not true. He uses his PR to talk down his country. He says one thing in Turkish and another in English.”
But Kanter plans to pursue his goal of holding more camps than any other athlete, and says it’s not all about politics.
“I remember last year (with the Portland Trail Blazers) when the season was over, we had a team meeting, and (the players) talked about how they’re going to go and play Fortnite all day, and how they were going to go to the beach, and I thought this was a waste of time,” he said. “I was like, we have so much ability to go out there and inspire people. That’s why I asked my manager what was the record for a player with an NBA basketball camp, and he told me nine. It actually made me very sad. So we did 50 basketball camps in 30 states.”
Though it’s probably impossible to track such a record, Kanter has to be somewhere near the top of the list.
“We don’t just play basketball. We talk about nutrition, anti-bullying, respecting each other and giving back to the community,” he said. “Next year we’ll try to beat our record and do 60 in 40 states.”
The Turkish government isn’t likely to relent. Last week, during a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, Turkish ministers railed against Kanter during a separate session. Kanter knows because he obtained the video and posted it on his Twitter feed.
And if this pressure isn’t going to abate, Kanter will need his refuge more than ever.
“Of course. It’s my escape every time I step on the floor,” he said. “If I bring these conversations on the floor with me, it would be very selfish. I cannot let those off-the-court things affect me and my teammates. So I put my game mask on in every game, but it’s like every time I leave the floor the war starts again.”
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