A letter written by a U.S. senator to the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Washington to help defend Turkish NBA player Enes Kanter, who is accused by Ankara of belonging to an armed terrorist group, Fox News reported on Saturday.
Turkey last year issued an arrest warrant for Kanter and revoked his passport over links to Gülen movement, a religious group Turkey accuses of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016. Turkish government launched a massive crackdown against the devotees of the group both in Turkey and abroad, following the failed coup attempt.
The Turkish NBA player has never hidden his ties to Gülen movement and is an outspoken critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
In January, Kanter, who is now a member of the Portland Trail Blazers, declined to accompany his previous team, the New York Knicks, on a trip to London, out of fear that he could be killed by Ankara’s spies.
“President Erdogan has responded like many thin-skinned autocrats before him, by going after Mr. Kanter and his family,” Senator Ron Wyden wrote to Pompeo. “America cannot and must not stay silent in the face of such a blatant assault on free thought and expression. This is even truer when the perpetrators of such odious behaviour are supposed friends and allies,” he said.