Enna's Canter was a young basketball phena, living and playing professionally in his native Turkey before eventually coming to the United States to play in the NBA. Currently, he plays center for the Portland Trailblazers, and his story would be the stuff of dreams if not for the specter of
authoritarian leadership back at home. Turkish President Resep Erduwan's rule in Turkey started off in a promising direction, but soon devolved into corruption and authoritarianism as he shunned his party's political allies in the Gulan Movement, eventually labeling them a terrorist organization bent on taking over the government. Since then, over fifty thousand members of the Ghulan Movement have been
arrested for nothing more than their political affiliation. Ennis Canter began using his platform as an NBA player to draw international attention to this dire situation, making him a wanted man in his beloved Turkey. Since efforts to silence ns have failed, Erduwan has brought down his ire instead upon the Ennis's father. In twenty eighteen, doctor Memet Cantor was
sent to prison on false charges of terrorism. Ultimately, Sunlight proved to be the best disinfectant when Ennis was able to use his platform as an NBA star to win his father's freedom, but he is keen to remind us that there are so many more political prisoners still suffering through the authoritarian rule of Urtuwan. This is wrongful Conviction with Jason Plott. Welcome back to wrongful Conviction. Today's guest was wrongfully convicted in absentia. His father was also wrongfully convicted.
All of this happened in a foreign country, and all of it happened while he was playing in the NBA. So without further ad please allow me to introduce my friend Ennis Cantor and it's welcome to wrongful Conviction.
Thank you for having him. I really appreciate it.
And Ennis, what a life, short life, I mean, you're all notly born in nineteen ninety two. You're like a kid to me, you know, but what a life you have led and what a courageous person you are. And we're going to get into all of that, but before we do, let's go back to the beginning. First of all, I think most people don't know you were born actually not a Turkey in Switzerland.
Right, Yes, I'mor in Switzerland. My dad was doing his master I stayed there for nine months and then I moved back to Turkey.
And your father is doctor Mehmet Cantor, a professor of genetics, a medical doctor, right, and you know, well tell us about him.
I mean, he's a genetic professor. Obviously, it was all about education. And you know I was tolder than all my classmates. You know, my classmates or my teammates were always making fun of me. I said, hey, your dad, and you know, play with your geens. That's why you're so tall. But he was always all about his education. He actually did not want me to play basketball at all.
You know.
He was telling me, hey, you know your mom's a nurse. He's a genic professor, so you are going to be a doctor or you're going to be a professor one day. Just stop wasting your time playing basketball. I told him. He was like, listen that you know, I want to play basketball, but you know, go to school same time and I can do both. And he was like, okay, I'll give you a chance. If your grades are not good, your quld in basketball.
I think your father and my father would have gotten along great. I wish my dad was still alive to meet him. To understand Ennis's story, you should understand a few things about Turkish history and politics. The Republic of Turkey, formerly the Ottoman Empire, has a very rich and tumultuous history, leaving a varying religious and ethnic identity in its wake. Just before World War One, a coup brought about a constitutional democracy that saw to unite the diverse population under
one national Turkish identity. This assertive secularism was problematic for the many faithful, who saw their religious identity shunned in public. Over the last century, this conflict between secularism and religious freedom has given rise to movements rivaling the secular, military, and intellectual elites. One such political group, the Ghulan Movement, found a tactical political ally in the center right Religion Friendly, Justice and Development Party, also known as the AKP of
Recep Erduwan. That alliance brought the AKP to power and proved fruitful for the Gulan movement, seeing many Gulan appointments in the judiciary and law enforcement, until Erduwan and the AKP began to consolidate power and devolved into corruption and authoritarianism. Any investigation into that corruption was met with wild accusations
of a witch hunt and a judicial coup. The akp and Erduwan has since falsely labeled the Ghulan movement a terrorist organized, purging thousands from their political appointments and arresting and persecuting over fifty thousand members of the peaceful Guland movement. Now what does it mean? I know that you are educated at his met affiliated schools which are part of the Guland movement. Now, can you explain why that's significant?
First of all, that he's met. The word itself means like serve. You know, it's a global you know, social movement focuses on three things, secular education, fightam with poverty and social harmony around the globe. And obviously inspired by an Islamic scholar, Fetula Gulan, and he inspired millions of people around the world to open up you know, modern and secular schools and relief organizations. You know, the Gulah Moment school in Turkey was the best schools in the
whole country. Even I believe Ardon's kids were going to the schools.
You actually became acquainted with Petula Gulin, who's become the focal point of so much international intrigue, and of course your association with him probably was one of the things that put you in the crosshairs.
You know, I remember first time meeting him, I believe it was back in twenty thirteen. I was very curious about who this man, you know, behind all this. I took a trip to Pennsylvania to meet him with one of my friends, and you know, I still remember one thing that he told me that still inspires me every day.
He is like, it doesn't matter what your background is, It doesn't matter what your belief your religion, your skin color is the most important thing in life is live your differences on the table and trying to find what we have in common. And he believes we have lots of problems are happening around the world because of uneducated people. You know, he's an Islamic scholar. But instead of him going around and build the mosques, he believed in education.
And you know, this movement have now schools and cultural centers. I believe, over one hundred and seventy country in the world. And these organizations are not just for Muslim people. You know, you're a Jewish, you're Christian, Catholic, or you're Muslim, you're believe in God, you don't believe in God, you can go to these schools or these organizations and learn about method science or about life, you know.
So, the gul And Movement and the currently ruling Justice and Development Party or AKP, that of course is Urdawan's party, were at one point allied, and at that time they championed the American quote unquote style of secularism that supported individual rights to freedom of religion over what we call assertive secularism. And they formed a tactical alliance in order to defeat their common foes through political means, which were
the military leaders and the secular elitists. All of that sounds good, right, but then things took a turn in a very dark direction. And can you explain how that happened to this country that you grew up in and that I'm sure you loved and probably still loved to this day.
So, actually, mister Gulan and Ardom, you know, they have a couple of pictures together, but they were really never allies. Media wanted to make it look like they were allies, but they were never allies. And also till twenty twelve, Airdron was saying he's going for democracy. He's gone for freedom and all that stuff. And that's why lots of the people from you know, Gulam moments, not Julan himself,
but the Yula moment was voted for him. So a lot of people you know from AKP party and Gulam woman to become policemen, judges, or journalists or persecutors and they were running the country really really well. So back in twenty thirteen, there was a big corruption scandle happened in Turkey and President Ardan, his family and some of
the congressmans close to Erdoon was involvement. And when they cut his voice, when they cut his tape that he stole from people, it was a huge news because they caught the whole world just so that Adam was a crop leader. You can literally go on YouTube and hear every word when he got cut, and obviously he got so mad he wanted to put everyone in jail who
was saying that he stole from people. He's a crop leader, you know, So that's why he started putting people in jail, police, judges, prosecutors or media and started the shutdown media outlets, and he started shouting down prep schools in Turkey who are affiliated with good Moments. And that is the first time I said something. I'm like, I don't care who you are. If you are fighting against education, I'm going to say something.
I tweet something about it, and just because of you know, the platform that I have, it became a conversation in Turkey and America, and I was like, wow, I just see an even power of one tweet. So from now on, I'm going to start paying attention what's going on in my country more, because till then I only care about basketball, you know, just make a lot of money, take care of my family, take your people I love, and just represent my country in America. But after that happened, I'm like, okay,
I gotta be just more than a basketball player. And that's the first time I said something, and things just started.
And you didn't just say something. I mean, you talked about Due as a lunatic dictator and even compared him with Hitler.
So after I said something in twenty thirteen, you know, things were getting worse and worse. And twenty fifteen was the last time that I was back in Turkey. I only stayed there for like fourteen days, and I remember whenever I went there. My family were like scared and say, ncl and you don't go out alone. You're going somewhere, Just go with like a couple of your friends. Let us know where you're going and stuff. And then you know, that was the last time I saw them before I
left my family. I remember that morning I had to sit down conversation which my family with my mom and dad. I said, listen, there's a path that I'm taking, and whatever happens, I'm not going to back down. And because of the stand that I'm going to take, you guys, we are going to get haressed a lot. You guys might be in jail one day and you guys might be like the most hated family in Turkey. I told him, because I know what the conversation was gone, and I
told him. He was like, listen, if you are with me, then you're with me. If not, then tell me now. So I can, you know, make up my mind and say, okay, I'm alone in this. My mom said, if you are you know, standing up for something good, something right, then we are with you. If not, then we are now with you. And I looked at my dad. My dad did not say a word. He didn't say anything, because I'll be honest, all he wanted me to do is
play basketball. And then I left. We call a cap and I remember my mom and my sister went to a balcony to like to bade me goodbye, and I get in the cab. I turn around and they were raving, and I told myself, this is the last time I'm seeing them.
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individuals most in need. More recently, the program added criminal and social justice reform as a key pillar of its mission. Maday twenty sixteen is when Urdawan sees the Goulan newspaper It's called Zaman, and then he recategorized the Goulan movement as the Fetula terrorist organization, which is it's gaslighting, right. He was turning into a terrorist state while calling the peace loving people the terrorists. But then again, we see
that here in America. Up until you know, January twentieth of this year, it looked like we were going down that road. So there was an attempted coup carried out by a faction of the Turkish armed forces known as the Peace and Home Council, and everything went really crazy.
Now many people knows, but the night of the courttempt I was with mister Gillan and he was shot. He couldn't believe it. The first thing he did was call all his friends, all his students to get together and pray for Turkey because that night, over two hundred and
fifteen intes of people died. After the quotemp Dan came out and blamed the Guilla moment for the coottempt and that moment, I was like, this is the craziest thing I have ever heard, because I saw what mister Gillan did with my own eyes that night, he sat in his chair and prayed for his country. And when the air Don blamed the Gillen moment and mister Gillan for the quotem, I'm like, I'm gonna do whatever I can
to tell this story to the whole world. And the Turkish government got really really mad because there was their plan, you know, the quotemp, and then du one can pretty much become a one man show, put everyone in jail whoever's against them, shut down all the media outlets who are whoever's against them, or just put all the journalists and judges, and changed the military and everything.
You know. Since this time, over one hundred thousand Goolan followers have been purged from their civil service jobs and over fifty thousand have been arrested so far, you know, and who knows what's become of them. So after the attempted coup is when things started getting really scary for your family, your immediate family. You know.
My dad got fired from his job and my sister went to medical school for six years. She still cannot find a job. My little brother was playing basketball, and you know, he wanted to be an NBA player, but he was literally getting kicked out in every team because of the same last name. So they were getting affected so much. They had to put a statement out there and saying we are disowned an NS. But Turkish government
did not believe that. You know, they sent police to my house in Turkey and they raided the whole house and they took a really electronic away, computers, laptops, and iPads because they wanted to see if I am still in contact with my family or not. If they were to see any text message, email, phone call or whatever, they will be all in jail. Which they took my dad in jail for a while. We put so much pressure from here the Turkey they let him go.
You know.
I asked my brother like after my dad got out, like how's my dad doing? And my brother said, we asked him the questions like what happened in there? What did they ask you? What did they do to you? He never talks about it after, you know, he got out of jail. He was just watching the walls and acting so weird. And stuff. So I don't know what did they do in there to him, but he was just not the same person.
And then, of course in twenty seventeen, you know, you were charged with terrorism, convicted in absentia, and you were facing four years in prison, and they came after you. Now this was at a time when and I don't know how. By the way, it's really remarkable to me, maybe basketball is your one place where you can for a couple of hours tune out. Nobody can focus on the bad stuff. Twenty four hours a day ll go insane.
So I'm glad that you have basketball, and it's incredible that you're able to focus on it and continue to exceed expectations the way that you do. But twenty seventeen, this is the story that you told me over dinner, right, Yeah, so you were on the tour teaching kids, and then in Indonesia, shit went crazy.
So we said, okay, after twenty sixteen, we are definitely not gone back to Turkey, and my managers like, let's do something for kids, and let's just go to these countries do basketball camp. Talk about education, talk about social harmony, healthy lifestyle, with respecting your parents, We talk about universal peace and just do basketball camp because sports is an
amazing tool to bring people together. You know, you can be from different countries, different colors, different days and that whatever, different beliefs, but you can cheer for the same team. So in twenty seventeen, we planned to visit seventeen country in like thirty five days. Right, we start with Pacific. Visited Japan, Singapore, Philippines. But the same time, obviously my friends were saying, listen, Turkish government is like octopus. They
got arms everywhere, so be careful. We visited the seven countries in pacifics our last one was Indonesia. We held a basketball camp. We were meeting with Turkish communities. We're visiting schools. End of the night, my friend asked me if you want to stay in a school or do you want to stay at the hotel. You know, he showed me a picture of the school. The beds were so small and I'm I'm not going to fit here.
So while I was at the hotel, I was sleeping, my manager knocked my door about like two thirty am. Something is that come to my room. We need to talk. We got a phone call from one of our friends in a local in Jakarta. He said, there are some people in the school who just had basketball clinic with They are asking for you, but we have no idea who they are. And she's like, what do you want to do. I was like, I want to stay because next day we have so many things scheduled. He's like,
this could be very dangerous. We need to escape the country.
You know.
It's very scary to be in a country that you don't know the language, you don't know the culture, you don't know the people there, and you are in danger and you literally trying to escape the whole country, you know. And we look at the flights. Our first flight was I believe five thirty AM to Singapore. In fifteen minutes, I pack everything, we get in the cap at the
same time. But while we go in the airport, we are taking a video and send it to our lawyers in America, like if something happens, so they can use that as a proof that we are about to get kidnapped. So we came to the airport, I mean obviously Indonesian, you know, people are not that tall, and everyone asking me questions like, hey, I've told you, what are you doing? Why are you here? So my friend just said, just sit down in a chair and do not get up. I'm just going to get the tickets and we are
going to leave. We got the tickets and we left the country at five thirty am and we landed in Singapore. My manager's like, let's call our local guy there in Jakarta and see, like, who was those people came to school that asking for you. And our local guy said, you guys are very lucky because those people they were intelligence service and army and wanted to talk to you, and that talk was not going to be just a talk.
What usually Turkish government does is work with these countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and some of the other countries.
You know.
They took people there and put a NetPlane and set it back to a Turkey so if you were to stay there that night, they could ship us back to the Turkey. And then we were like, okay, let's just go to Europe and do our basketball clinics there and do our events there. Our first stop was in Romania. It was my birthday and we had this like huge event. Thousands of people were gonna come and we're gonna do a big event in Romania with some of the Turkish people there, so I gave my passport to this lady.
She took like five ten minutes and she said, hold on a second. She went in the back. She came out with the police and said, sir, your passport has been revoked. And I was like, hold on a second, why is my passport revoke? The police said, we are not allowed to tell you, but if you want to learn more about it, you can call the Turkish embassy. And I'm like, those are the people who revoke my passport.
I'm not gonna call them. So my marriage is like, we literally have like two three hours to get out Romania because if not, I'm not an American citizen, I still count as a Turkish citizen, so they could have just sent me back to Turkey. So we literally like have two three hours who left the country. So I guess like the best way they just go back to America. Right. We called every person we know, like congressman, senators, we even like texted NBA player association. So we getting up
a flight. We were gonna land in London and come back to America. We landed in London and the captain announced and said, nobody gets up and me and my manager's like, what's going on? The plane? Doors are open, and there's this Two police with machine guns came in the plane and they're looking for someone, right, and they took someone behind us. I guess there was like a terrorist or someone in the plane. They took them out, but they took so long that we missed our New
York plane. So there's this ticket lady. It's like, listen, there is no more flight to New York. You guys have to stay here. Don't worry. I'm gonna give you guys like a hotel and come back in. So we told the ladies, like we cool, we're going to stay at airport. And she was just so weirded out. It's like, what do you mean you guys could He's like no, no, no, we're cool. We're going to stay at the airport. So
that night we stayed at the airport. The next day, front of our plane, there was this gentleman I still remember him, but like glasses jacket, very serious, like he asked for my green card again, my green card. He took some nose call some people and he's like, okay, girl. Later on we learned that he was from Homeland Security. Because I didn't have a passport, so I wasn't going to be able to fly. So like Homeland Security got in and then we came in a plane. I was like, man,
this feels home. I am not living here till become an American citizen and then since then I'm here.
At any time for however long. It took two days, three days this journey. At any moment, you could have been done and you were facing four years in prison. But we know that that could have turned into very easily a death sentence, torture, or they could have extended it indefinitely because they could do whatever they wanted that country. Right now, I mean, let's face it, so this is
a serious, serious thing that you went through. I mean, I hope you have a good therapist, because I feel like I'm going to need a therapist after listen to this story. You know, so you made it out alive and you got back to American soil. You're safe here. It's hard not to mention the fact that you aren't even able to go and play the Toronto Raptors on an away game because you simply can't leave the country without fear of being extradited to face this four year
sentence or worse. But the Turkish authorities, after failing miserably to apprehend you, I'm sure there was hell to pay back there for the people who weren't able to capture you.
But they weren't done messing with you. And because they couldn't get you, they decided to extract their revenge on your family, on your father specifically, And in June of two thousand eighteen, your dad, doctor Mehmetcantor, was tried, I'm able to call it a sham trial, charged with terrorism charges right again, the gaslighting bullshit, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Of course, he appealed to charges, but that went nowhere, I mean even here. Those things usually
go nowhere. But somehow or other, and I'm amazed by this, you were able to shine a light on this awful injustice and free your father in June of twenty twenty. I'm amazed that that campaign was successful. But tell me what this is all about and how this affected you and how you were able to get him home?
Right, I mean, so he's been going in a lot of jails and in a lot of Turkish courts for years and years, right, so they were so scared of what I was like saying, they banned my Twitter account and Turkey. So if you go to Turkey right now and try to check what I twiteter or anything, you cannot see whatever I'm saying. But I'm like, okay, right now, what can I do to bring more awareness to discount? So that's why I started to work with some of
the politicians. And you know, I went to DC many times, and whenever I sit down and have a conversation with it both sides, you know, Republicans and Democrats, and I started to tell them about my story, tell them about the people who are facing the same situation. They were like, we already know these conversation, tell us how can we help you? And that actually gave me so much hope.
So I start working with politicians, working with senators, working with congressmens and congresswomen's media really helped us, not just in America, but you know internationally, really really helped us to bring awareness of what's really going on in the Turkey. So and then you know, like we put so much pressure on them every time they touched my father or every time my dad was about to go to jail or go in to a trial. We were bringing so much awareness to it, you know, we were writing opeds
about it, we were talking to media about it. And then in twenty twenty, my brother, the one in Greece he plays basketball now, finally texted me and said, my dad is free. They got to a point that were so scared they have to let him go. And you know a lot of people are like a lot of my teammates and friends have texted me and said, hey, man, you can finally relax. Now take a vacation, you can finally focus on yourself. But I was like, no, my fight is just getting started. You know, my family was
only one. I never just did this to only free my father. There are so many people out there there. Stretion is way worse than my father's. Turkey is the still number one country in a world that put most journalists in a jail. You know, we are just getting started. We are not going to stop till every innocent person in those prisons are free.
Amen to that. It's a nightmare I can't even begin to imagine. And it's going to require people like you, people of good conscience, with courage and conviction is the only word I could think of. Ironically, who are going to ultimately bring about this change. It's the only thing that ever does, and otherwise it's going to say the
same and get worse. Of course, we're going to put links in the bio for people to learn more about this fast moving but slow motion nightmare that's taking place for so many people in that beautiful country of Turkey. And now we come to the part of our show, which is a segment that we call closing Arguments. It's the part of the show where first of all, I thank you and a scanter for coming here, taking your time and sharing your remarkable journey, which is still unfolding
as we speak. And then I turn my microphone off and leave yours on. This is the part of the show where you get to say whatever you want, anything that's been left unsaid, anything you want to tell people. But please, as part of that offer any advice you can give to people who are listening. Say I'm just one person I want to help. I don't know what to do. What can people do to help?
First of all, I think, you know, just there's not just one authoritarian regime in the world. You know, Turkey is not the only one. There are so many of them author in the world that I feel like the best what we can do is just standing up against those regimes. That is the one question I was always getting, like what can we do to help? So that's why we started this initiative call you Are My Hope campaign.
We are planning to call like signatures. You can go to you Aremhope dot org and sign the initiative and with those signatures, we are planning to take them to a White House, United Nations Human Rights course, maybe European Parliament and says listen, there are so many human right abuses are happening in Turkey. There are so many political prisoners, and there are so many journalists are in the general
right now waiting for help. There are thousands of people are behind this cous There are so many signatures behind these cous So let's take some actions. That is the one thing you guys can to It will take one minute of your day. You are My Hope and sign the initiative. We already got over eighty thousand signatures so far.
But other than that, it's like the best way to just beat those regime is just educate yourself, because they are really scared of educated people because they only want the yes men's around them, and people who's not going to ask any questions and do whatever they want them to do. You know, I feel like the education is the best way to just beat those regimes.
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. Please support your local innocence projects and go to the link in our bio to see how you can help. I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Cliburn and Kevin Warns. The music on the show, as always, is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and
on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm is a production of Life Off for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one