NBA star blames 'Hitler of our century' for being detained overseas

Oklahoma City Thunder centre Enes Kanter is back in the United States after he was held in Romania because his Turkish passport was "cancelled", he said in a video posted to Twitter.

Kanter, a longtime critic of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was held by police in a Romanian airport for several hours. Kanter had arrived in Bucharest from Jakarta, Indonesia, as he travelled for his Enes Kanter Light Foundation global tour. He blamed Erdogan for the cancelled passport.

"They said they cancelled my passport by Turkish embassy," Kanter, a Turkey native, said in the video. "The reason behind it is of course my political views."

Kanter has spoken out heavily against Erdogan since the failed 2016 Turkey coup, instead favouring the beliefs of Fethullah Gülen. Supporting Gülen has gotten Kanter publicly disowned by his family and made him a controversial figure in Turkey.

"He's attacked the people in Washington, he's a bad, bad man," Kanter said of Erdogan, referring to the president's security fighting with US protesters during a White House visit last week. "He's a dictator. He's the Hitler of our century."

A few hours later, the NBA told the New York Times that it had worked with the State Department to ensure Kanter's release and that he had arrived safely in London. Kanter then followed that up with a tweet saying "All good baby", announcing he'll hold a press conference in New York to share the details.

All good baby!
Gonna give press conference tomorrow in NY.
Got lots of things to say with lots of crazy stories.
Be ready!!!
Ohhh Yeeahhh pic.twitter.com/CXktUXk2PS

— Enes FREEDOM (@EnesFreedom) May 20, 2017

Kanter was raised in Turkey before coming to the United States to play at a California Prep school and then at Kentucky.

The situation in Turkey over the last 10 months has become increasingly unstable. President Erdoğan has increased his authoritarian rule over the country - which is at the nexus of Europe and the Middle East - since a military coup d'état was attempted last July.

Erdogan blamed the followers of the Gülen movement for the coup and has played the role of a strongman ruler, rooting out and removing dissonance in government, the military and universities, and by revoking the passports of Kurds, Alevis - a branch of Shia Islam - and supporters of Gülen living abroad.

Kanter is one of the most outspoken Gülen supporters.

Followers of Gülen have been rooted out of all levels of the state - the government claimed that 70,000 were processed as part for their involvement with the coup attempt.

The government also released nearly 40,000 prisoners to make room for those arrested for their perceived roles in the coup - a group of people who are disproportionately Gülen supporters.

Supporters of Gülen and critics of Erdogan living abroad, like Kanter, have seen their passports revoked without warning or given reason. The government revoked the passports of 50,000 after the coup and have not stopped revoking (it's gone in waves) since.