Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Uncategorized

“That Dude is A Maniac”: Knicks Player Enes Kanter Indicted For Insulting Turkish Strongman Erdogan

500px-New_York_Knicks_logo.svg220px-Erdogan_croppedPresident Donald Trump recently entered into the national debate over the NFL protests by criticizing football players taking a knee before games during the national anthem.  Some were enraged and called for his impeachment — a call that I previously discussed as unfounded and dangerous.  I saw no reason why the President was out of line in giving his opinion on the controversy.  There is however an even more pressing matter involving an American professional athlete that would warrant a strong and public statement from President Trump.  He is New York Knicks player Enes Kanter who is the subject of an abusive charge in Turkey for allegedly insulting its blood-soaked authoritarian leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  President Trump should publicly support Kanter and his right to exercise free speech — a right that Erdogan has curtailed in Turkey in his crackdown on dissidents and journalists alike.

Among his tweets, Kanter described Erdogan as Erdogan as the “Hitler of our century.”
We have seen the erosion of liberties in Turkey after the election of Erdoğan and his coalition of Islamic parties. Just last month, we discussed the arrest of Mehmet Emin Altunses, 16, who allegedly committed the crime of “insulting” Erdoğan. calling people who use birth control “traitors” and saying Muslims discovered America, you are not allowed to be disrespectful or insulting in discussing Erdoğan. Then there was the prosecution of model and former Miss Turkey Merve Buyuksarac, 26, for criticizing Erdogan for quoting a few lines from a poem called the “Master’s Poem” from weekly Turkish satirical magazine Uykusuz. Erdoğan’s totalitarian measures have earned him the nickname “Buyuk Usta” (the Big Master). Even a joking reference to Gollum and Erdoğan is enough to land you in jail today in Turkey.
Erdoğan has the dubious distinction of being the man who dismantled the only major secular government in the Muslim world — after lying that he had no intention of infusing the system with Islamic influences and doctrines. As a petty tyrant who is despised throughout the world and in torts might even be considered “libel proof” as someone who is without a reputation to lose.
Nevertheless, Erdoğan continues to try to crush anyone who even makes fun of his litany of bizarre, unhinged comments — including a German comedian.  In this latest case, Kanter criticized Erdogan in 2016 tweets and was then hit with an indictment by the Istanbul chief prosecutor.  His response was clear and entirely factually accurate: “That dude is a maniac.”
Kanter’s family is from Turkey and he is known to be a supporter of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric blamed by Turkey who Erdogan wants dead.

He may now be tried in absentia.

Prior Trump associates like Michael Flynn have been associated with Turkish figures in rather shadowy deal, including an alleged plot to kidnap Gulen.  President Trump could quiet many of these concerns while standing in support of free speech by denouncing this indictment and calling upon Turkey to withdraw this abusive prosecution.

36 thoughts on ““That Dude is A Maniac”: Knicks Player Enes Kanter Indicted For Insulting Turkish Strongman Erdogan”

  2. Thanks for sharing this Roscoe. It reminds me of the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) process back in the 90’s. It’s very refreshing to see efforts to weed out wasteful and unnecessary positions within the federal government. It’s a paradigm shift for those favoring the administrative state and this of course will cause a panic attack among the progressives.

  3. LOL! I’m not surprised you believe that. Apparently anything that contradicts your socialist paradigm is an alternative fact.

  4. (music to the tune of Henry The Eighth)

    I’m Erdogan the 8th I am!
    Erdogan the 8th I am, I am!
    I got married to the widow next door..
    She’s been married seven times before…
    And everyone was an Erdogan!
    It wouldn’t be a Willy or a Fred!
    For there ain’t no man like Erdogan!
    Erdogan the 8th I am!
    dodole dee

  5. I doubt that President Trump will defend anyone who insults Erdogan. After all, it would appear that President Trump maybe jealous of Erdogan’s power to silence his critics.

  6. I think in an effort to appease the NFL, Trump should allow the player to be extradited to Turkey and tried for his alleged crimes. Then the NFL players will see what happens when you really f**k with a dictator. Really, besides who cares about the Knicks. Often, all you need is one good example and the others will fall into line. 🙂

  7. Turkey is Turkey and always will be Turkey: a nation of pigs (with apologies to pigs) that systematically exterminated 1.5 million Armenians.

  8. Erdogan is insuring that Mr. Kanter will not ever come to visit Turkey. Frankly, I don’t blame Erdogan for trying to rein in the dissidents. He is trying to undo the evil influence of the West, where “freedom” has become a mere license for merely doing whatever you want.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

      1. “A less sane version”, preferred by the Kremlin? If so, it would add to understanding of Trump’s attraction to a problematic Flynn and Flynn’s alleged kidnapping plot of Erdogan’s opponent, Gulen. Flynn provided something to prosecutors to get 60 years reduced to 6 months?

        A school chain, described as the fastest growing in the U.S., paid for with local taxes, is reportedly linked to Gulen. Public school privatization, foisted on us by the richest 0.1% (and, the state congresses and governors that they own), opened the doors for the schools like those staffed by Turkish nationals. (The state legislator trips to Turkey courtesy of the Niagara Foundation are interesting.)

        The perfect way to fractionalize America and erase the past 150 years is to segregate kids into schools, based on economic strata, religion, race, and gender. An easy way for America’s powerful corporate interests to funnel money where desired (and to avoid federal and state congressional accountability), is to force and dupe local taxpayers into government services privatization.

        Bill Gates’ campaign to privatize public education (in Nov. 2016, he spent money to defeat 3 state judges who rendered verdicts favorable to public education) may be related to his investment in the largest, for-profit seller of schools-in-a-box. However, last spring, an official of the alleged, Gulen-linked schools, attended the Gates-funded education fellowship program, Pahara.

        1. Linda:

          You said, “The perfect way to fractionalize America and erase the past 150 years is to segregate kids into schools, based on economic strata. . . ”

          Have you voiced your concern to swarthemoremom??? Because she could have sent her little darling to Grambling, but instead chose a ritzy white people school. And she has the nerve to brag about it!

          Squeeky Fromm
          Girl Reporter

          1. And there it is, one more hackneyed, right wing argumentation technique. This one, unlike the ongoing headline and the Russian “what about…ism” should be named after its originator, Rush Limbaugh- take an isolated example and build a case around it to condemn the whole.

              1. Trump’s appointee, Republican DeVos (sister of the founder of the mercenary army, Blackwater) forces taxpayers to subsidize the private schools that rich kids attend, the same schools that deny access through selective admission criteria like legacy.

                1. You are just babbling, tossing off stale canards, and refusing to answer the questions. Do you have/had kids, and did you send them to a predominantly white school? Do you deny that most white people, including chest-thumping Democrats, send their kids to predominantly white schools?

                  Squeeky Fromm
                  Girl Reporter

                  1. When legacy admission, connections and wealth segregate a school, it is deplorable to fund it with taxes.
                    It is also deplorable that Americans tolerate discrimination against Black people in hiring, pay, in real estate renting and ownership and, in interest rates and loan availability.
                    Squeeky, you and I and all Americans owe an explanation about which politicians we have elected and what they have done to redress the egregious wrongs of racial discrimination.

                    My personal experiences are in a public school system that had a student population that matched national racial demographics. It was prior to the Koch, Walton and Gates attacks on public schools. With great disgust at your argumentation technique borrowed from Limbaugh, I responded but don’t anticipate that I will assign any value to your “what about…ism”, ongoing irrelevant headlines nor, generalizing from isolated incidents, no matter how much wheedling and insulting you engage in.

                    1. Linda – as best I can tell, the Democrats have promised blacks the Promised Land in everything and not delivered. I worked in schools that cleaned up the messes that the public schools made with their blacks, Hispanics, Asians, etc. We tested our students when they came in the door. The floor on the test was 4th grade, 90% of the students scored there when we got them. Actually, they would have scored lower if they had used the test I had suggest which had a lower floor, but be that as it may, we started from there and got them up to speed in all their courses doing a lot of remediation first. And we got them to pass the state test for graduation and get enough credits to graduate. Many went on to college, some went into the military.

                      The teacher’s union dropped the ball and abandoned these children, as did the public school system. It was the charter school system that saved them.

                    2. Sooo, in your humble opinion, white people owe an explanation of what they have done to redress the wrongs of discrimination. Maybe, but what do you expect of black people???

                      Because, white people at least did something. . . maybe it was wrong and misguided but:

                      The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States launched by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964–65. The main goal was the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. President Johnson first used the term “Great Society” during a speech at Ohio University, then unveiled the program in greater detail at an appearance at University of Michigan.

                      New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, and transportation were launched during this period. The program and its initiatives were subsequently promoted by him and fellow Democrats in Congress in the 1960s and years following. The Great Society in scope and sweep resembled the New Deal domestic agenda of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

                      And how exactly did our wonderful black citizens repay this largesse??? By getting their poop in one sock, and taking advantage of the educational opportunities, and the financial help??? No, it doesn’t appear that way. Instead, they started popping out illegitimate kids left and right, and jumping feet first into “generational poverty”, and sucking up Food Stamps, housing vouchers, and every other sort of goody they could.

                      https://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/files/2010/10/maritaldecline.jpg

                      This doesn’t even touch the widespread crime and violence ginned out by the poor black victims of racial injustice. Sooo, what is it you expect of blacks??? Do you have any expectations of them at all??? Or, does your ideology just want to continue throwing money at a group of violent cretins??? For another 50 years or so???

                      Squeeky Fromm
                      Girl Reporter

                    4. Linda – I try not to be proud or sad about anything. It is nice of Squeeky to be supportive. For instance, I am not upset by your snotty comment. I am no more proud of Squeeky than I am upset with you. Does that help settle the issue?

    2. Kanter is a Turkish citizen. His passport was cancelled earlier this year, and he was briefly detained by Rumanian authorities in Bucharest. The Turkish government had hoped to have him deported from Rumania to Turkey, but the US intervened and Kanter was allowed to proceed to the US. Kanter is also known to be a supporter of Fethullah Gulen, the man that Erdogan blames for the coup attempt last year. So far, the US has refused to extradite Gulen, who has lived in exile in the US for a number of years. The US is not going to extradite Kanter, but he is now effectively barred from leaving the US, because he no longer holds a valid passport, and, if he goes elsewhere, he might be deported to Turkey by some third country.

  9. Erdogan sounds a lot like old “Crazy Abe” Lincoln, tyrant; despot (it’s funny how Catalonia, Britain, Scotland, Pakistan, Bangladesh, West Virginia and every nation in the former Soviet Union availed themselves of their natural, God-given right to secession).

  10. Here is the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Turkey.

    I don’t believe an extradition will be granted by the U.S. since there are no lèse-majesté laws enforceable in the U.S.:

    EXTRADITABLE OFFENSES

    (1) Extraditable offenses, pursuant to the provisions of this Treaty, are:

    (a) Offenses, regardless of whether listed in the Appendix to this Treaty or not, which are punishable under both the federal laws of the United States and the laws of Turkey by deprivation of liberty at least for a period exceeding one year or by a more severe penalty.

    (b) Offenses listed in the Appendix to this Treaty which are punishable under both the laws of the Requesting Party and the Requested Party for at least a period exceeding one year or by a more severe penalty.

    But there is one noteworthy exception that seems to give Erdoğan some delight:

    (1) Extradition shall not be granted:

    (a) If the offense for which extradition is requested is regarded by the Requested Party to be of a political character or an offense connected with such an offense; or if the Requested Party concludes that the request for extradition has, in fact, been made to prosecute or punish the person sought for an offense of a political character or on account of his political opinions.

    However, any offense committed or attempted against a Head of State or a Head of Government or against a member of their families shall not be deemed to be an offense of a political character. The provisions of this paragraph shall not affect any obligation of the Contracting Parties which has already been undertaken or may subsequently be undertaken by them under any multilateral international agreement.

    Maybe everyone should insult President Erdoğan. Safety in numbers.

      1. Wbich part don’t you believe? About the Native Americans or Columbus? I find that if I provide the documentation. People tend to dismiss or deny. In the Internet age where Google is so easy. I suggest you look it up yourself as you are the one with doubts.

  12. Trump maybe skimmed the Constitution after he won the election. At best. And that doesn’t mean he comprehended any of it.

    Uphold free speech? Not if it’s fake. Fake neeews. Obama was born in Kenya. That was real, right?

    Grill Trump the way Senator Kennedy grilled that pathetic judicial nominee recently. Trump wouldn’t pass the citizenship test let alone know what’s in the Constitution. And he’s meant to defend it?

    1. Trump maybe skimmed the Constitution after he won the election.

      Thanks Dave. That is such a pleasant sentence I thought it worth repeating.

      Being an expert on the constitution is important in 1 of 2 ways; 1. to respect its limits or 2. know how to work around it. So far President Trump is doing the former and Obama did the latter. What’s the lesson learned? Progressives only concern themselves with what they believe is between the ears, conservatives care about what’s in the heart as well. And we never just trust; we verify.

      One more time: Trump maybe skimmed the Constitution after he won the election.

      🙂

      2. Olly have you been following the moans and groans coming out of the State Dept. about how Tillerson is cutting back on staffing
        NPR did a story on it last week and to listen to the dandy Elliot Cohen made it seem like life in Versailles on the Potomac was made terribly dreadful by not continuing to fund that incestous bureaucratic cess pool.
        Who do those people think they are?
        http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-fg-pol-state-department-plan-20170915-story.html

        1. Just guessing “who these people think they are”- to this point, the people who have prevented WWIII and nuclear obliteration? Roscoe you may get your wish– an end to diplomacy. Your family signing up for the military?

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