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Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter says he is being detained in an airport in Romania after officials from his native Turkey canceled his passport, allegedly in retaliation for his political views.

In a Twitter video posted Saturday, Kanter criticized Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who made headlines in America this week when his guards attacked protesters in Washington D.C.

“The reason behind it is, of course, my political views,” Kanter said. “The guy who did it is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey. You guys know him by, you know, he has attacked the people in Washington. He is a bad, bad man; he is a dictator and he is the Hitler of our century.”

Kanter has strongly opposed Erdogan, supporting Erdogan critic Fethullah Gülen, a Philadelphia-based imam who was accused to sparking last year’s attempted coup in Turkey. Erdogan has drawn harsh international criticism for returning Turkey to authoritarianism.

Last year, Kanter’s family publicly disowned him for his pro-Gülen, anti-Erdogan stance.

Kanter was in Romania as part of his Enes Kanter Light Foundation global tour. He claimed in the Twitter video that he had been stuck in the airport “for hours,” guarded by two police officers.

Mahir Zeynalov of The Globe Post tweeted Saturday that if Kanter is deported to Turkey, he will likely be arrested.

https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov/status/865928723312365568

This is probably not how Kanter planned to spend his 25th birthday.

UPDATE: Kanter has reportedly made it to London, where he will try to figure out how to get back to the U.S.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.

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