He is the one who is not afraid to face the greatest leaders of this world. Enes Kanter, Turkish player of the Boston Celtics in the NBA, has criticized the Turkish and Chinese authoritarian regimes for several years. In his sights, the leaders of these countries, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Xi Jingping, and their violations of human rights in their country.
Criticisms that he has accentuated for several weeks, including the most recent on Monday, November 15. While a meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden is scheduled for Monday, Kanter cracked a virulent tweet intended to apostrophize the “President” Joe Biden and the “Dictator” Xi Jinping. “Stop playing games with bullies and do what you promised the world! Priority to human rights! “, he snarled, concluding his message in a caustic tone. : “Will Joe Biden ask questions about the genocide of the Uyghurs, the attacks on Tibetans and Hong Kong? Or will they hit each other on the back? “
President @JoeBiden & Dictator
Xi Jinping are scheduled to speak@POTUS
Stop playing games with bullies &
do what you promised to the world!
Prioritize Human Rights!Will @JoeBiden ask about Uyghur Genocide or assault on Tibetans & HK?
Or will they pat each other on the back? pic.twitter.com/kKwVNmb9ce
– Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) November 14, 2021
Since 2016, Enes Kanter has been taking positions against Erdogan, violations of Turkish power in the area of human rights. The basketball player is also violent in his remarks by comparing in 2017 the Turkish president, leader of the Islamo-conservative party (AKP), to the “the Hitler of our century”. In 2020, he also signed a tribune in the Boston Globe denouncing the “tens of thousands of innocent people locked in Turkish prisons, paying the price for President Recep Tayyip’s contempt Erdogan for human rights “.
Hitler & Erdogan ⤵️
(The Turkish President)– Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) August 13, 2017
More recently, the player denounced human rights violations in China, carrying the voice of minorities. He thus opposed Chinese President Xi Jingping on the repression of the Uyghurs, or the policy pursued in Hong Kong and Tibet. “Dear brutal dictator XI JINPING and the Chinese government. Tibet belongs to the Tibetan people!”, Kanter wrote on social media on October 21. “I stand alongside my Tibetan brothers and sisters, and I support their calls for Freedom.” A position that joins human rights defenders and Tibetan exiles, who affirm in particular that the Chinese central government practices religious repression, torture, forced sterilization and cultural erosion through forced re-education.
More than 150 Tibetan people have burned themselves alive!! — hoping that such an act would raise more awareness about Tibet.
I stand with my Tibetan brothers and sisters, and I support their calls for Freedom.#FreeTibet #FreedomShoes pic.twitter.com/MKxfs1l7GA
– Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) October 20, 2021
One of the last positions taken by the basketball player dates from November 10, and this time concerns Taiwan. “Taiwan will never surrender to the BAD Chinese Communist Party. Taiwan is a DEMOCRATIC and FREE country “, he again denounced on Twitter.
Taiwan will never surrender to the EVIL Chinese Communist Party.
Taiwan is a DEMOCRATIC and FREE country.
The future of Taiwan must be determined by the Taiwanese people.
Taiwan is NOT a part of China
and NEVER will be! #IslandOfResilience#FreedomShoes pic.twitter.com/3yxWnfbWLK– Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) November 10, 2021
Each of its positions is followed by several publications on its social networks. By way of illustration, he associates his remarks with photos of his sneakers, the customization of which adapts according to his fights. “Kanter is the most visible and media of Turkish players, and the one who goes the furthest in defying governments. And he does so with a pretty amazing stance, using the NBA platform to target outside countries. We don’t have that profile in Europe in general, of expatriate players who come to give lessons “, notes Jean-Baptiste Guégan, teacher in geopolitics of sport, author of Geopolitics of sport: another explanation of the world (Ed. Bréal). The NBA also supports (more or less openly) its player, as it had done when Daryl Morey, former player of the league, had taken a position on Hong Kong in 2019.
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So why such a stand? The mystery remains unsolved. “He knows what it means to be oppressed. He has been threatens physically by the Turkish diaspora. So he may have gone from a player who talks about his condition to a megaphone for the voiceless. He can also prepare for his retraining “, lists the specialist in sports geopolitics, Jean-Baptiste Guégan.
“He gives his support to a persecuted minority, and he also takes the opportunity to put a stop to Erdogan, who has supported the Uyghurs, but who has softened his speech since China has economic and financial interests in Turkey,” adds Pierre Raffard, geographer, specialist in Turkey and teacher at the Free Institute of International Relations and Political Sciences (ILERI). Contacted by franceinfo: sport, Enes Kanter did not wish to answer our questions.
At 29, Enes Kanter has been playing in the NBA for ten years. The current pivot of the Boston Celtics, has also gone through the Utah Jazz, the Oklahoma City Thunder or the New York Knicks. “He was a real hope in Turkish basketball, although he didn’t play much in Turkey. When he started his career in the United States, he was like all those Turkish sportsmen who succeed abroad, that ‘ had become a symbol “, develops Pierre Raffard.
Outside the prosecution, Enes Kanter is also an assumed supporter of the brotherhood of Imam Fethullah Gülen, the same one which is accused by the Turkish government of having orchestrated the failed coup against the president. Erdogan in July 2016. Enes Kanter’s father, academic Mehmet Kanter, is also a strong supporter of this movement. Ankara even considers him, since the failed attack of 2016, as a terrorist. He was also imprisoned for this reason.
Even after 2016, Kanter never hid his ties to Smiling and the Muslim Brotherhood. For his public support for this movement, Kanter, who is still under nine arrest warrants, declared éavoid contact with relatives, still in Turkey, for fear of exposing them to reprisals from the authorities. In addition, his passport was confiscated.
But the 2016 coup was a game-changer, and the symbol quickly turned into an enemy in Turkey. “In the United States, Enes Kanter is perceived as a defender of human rights, who defends democracy in Turkey, and denounces the autocracy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, analyzes Dağhan Iraq, senior lecturer in media and communication at Huddersfield University (located west of Manchester), specializing in political communication and the relationship between sport and politics. But in Turkey, he is seen as a fanatic of the extremist cult of Smiling, who was a former ally of Erdoğan. ”
And it is precisely these past links that challenge and criticize Daghan Iraq. “The Turks, whether pro or anti-Erdoğan, are well aware that Gülen’s group was not much different from Mr. Erdoğan’s autocracy, because they shared the same regime, until their political and financial divergence in 2013-2014. ”
“His positions are hypocritical, abounds Dağhan Iraq, who left Turkey around 2013-2014 to reach western Europe. The human rights violations that Kanter denounces were already carried out when Gülen and Erdoğan were allies. “
“When they were part of the same alliance, they had the same autocratic practice, and neither Gulen nor Kanter criticized Erdogan for that.”
Dağhan Iraq, Senior Lecturer at Huddersfield University
to franceinfo: sport
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Despite the numerous attacks, China did not respond to Enes Kanter’s attacks. Although the matches of the Boston Celtics were temporarily suspended, che retaliatory measures, of which it is customary, seem to be measured. “The Chinese do not want to provoke or hold up the Americans three months before the Beijing Games and risk a boycott. They therefore prefer to accept the criticism of Kanter, a Turkish player, second knife of the NBA and less visible than Daryl Morey for example, rather than attacking him head-on in response, and by themselves putting on the table the related accusations of Uyghurs, Taiwan etc .. “, Jean-Basptise-Guégan analysis.
“We will see with the approach of the Olympics, if he continues his positions, to what extent Kanter can be a factor of diplomatic incident or not.”
Jean-Baptiste Guégan
to franceinfo: sport
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On the other hand, China has a great need for entertainment and the NBA is one of the most watched leagues. The Chinese have, however “completely blacklisted Kanter’s positions, and mobilized their various networks of influence to discredit Kanter in the media and on social networks”, continues the specialist in the geopolitics of sport.
A strategy also used in Turkey where the local press has completely blacklisted him. “For a year and a half, two years, we no longer speak of him in the Turkish press, whether it is the press of the government or the opposition”, notes the geographer specializing in Turkey, Pierre Raffard. And in the few articles that appear about him, especially in the conservative and pro-government press, he is still referred to as the ‘Kanter terrorist’. ” What’s more, if he is seen as a defender of human rights in the United States, his image is quite different in Turkish society. “He is alone, concludes Pierre Raffard. Erdoğan’s supporters criticize him, as do opponents of Erdoğan, who are also Gülenist opponents. So he doesn’t have the support of anyone in Turkey. ”
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