Enes Kanter says this weekend wasn’t the first time Turkey tried to extradite him

Enes Kanter is safe in the United States, re-entering the country where he plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday. However, Kanter may have been very close to extradition back to his home country of Turkey.

The Thunder big man told media on Monday that he was pursued globally by Turkey in an attempt to deport him back to his home country.

Kanter is a vocal critic of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president who is using increasingly authoritarian tactics while in office. On Saturday, Kanter tweeted that his Turkish passport had been revoked by the government while he was in Romania, saying that police were detaining him at the airport.

But on Monday during an interview on ESPN’s Outside the Lines, Kanter revealed the same thing had happened in Indonesia earlier that week. Kanter, who has been touring the globe holding basketball camps, was at a hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, when his manager woke him up in the middle of the night and told him the Turkish government had requested that the Indonesian military detain Kanter.

Kanter essentially fled the country shortly after, only to see Turkey attempt to do the same thing in Romania. If he had been taken back to Turkey, Kanter is convinced he would have been imprisoned for his criticism of the president, Erdogan.

Because Kanter is a public figure, he fortunately had the help of the Thunder, the NBA, the National Basketball Players Association, and even the U.S. State Department working to bring him back to the country. Kanter does hold a green card, although his revoked passport means he may require special circumstances to attend the Thunder’s game in Toronto next season. Clearly, without his special status as a professional athlete, Kanter knows he could have been much worse off.

Kanter has been disowned by his family for his political support. Still, Kanter worries that if he even called them, it would be grounds for Turkey to jail them.

Without being able to return to Turkey, Kanter will now apply for U.S. citizenship, saying because of his unique circumstances that he hoped they could speed up the process that usually takes four or five years.