Turkish NBA player Enes Kanter said he was stopped at an airport in Romania on Saturday after his travel documents were canceled by his government.
The Oklahoma City Thunder center tweeted a video saying he was being held by police at the airport.
They said (Turkey’s embassy) canceled my passport. They’ve been holding us here for hours,” Kanter says in his video, panning over to two men in white shirts, “by these two police.”
A Romanian border police spokesman confirmed Kanter had been stopped but said the basketball player was never detained and had been free to move about the airport, until he left on a flight for London.
Kanter, who turned 25 Saturday, said Ankara had canceled his passport over to his political views and that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was responsible.
Reporting on Kanter’s tweets, Turkish state media outlet Anadolu said Kanter is a supporter of cleric Fethullah Gulen, an Erdogan opponent who now lives in Pennsylvania. Anadolu’s report did not include comment from the Turkish government.
Erdogan recently visited Washington, where he met with US President Donald Trump. During his US visit violence erupted outside the Turkish embassy and nine people were hospitalized.
CNN reached out to Turkish officials Saturday afternoon, which was early Sunday in Turkey, but has not yet received comment.
Kanter later tweeted that he was doing well and would speak to the media in New York on Sunday.
“All good, baby!” he wrote. “Got lots of things to say with lots of crazy stories.”
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