...I haven’t been able to go to cities outside the U.S. I’ve had to leave my team behind, which is hard for someone like me, who values camaraderie and team solidarity as much as I do. The reason: I speak out against the Turkish state.
In 2016, tens of thousands of innocent Turkish people, including babies and pregnant mothers, were thrown into prison following a failed coup against Turkey’s authoritarian leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In his words, it was a
“gift from God” that helped him crush the opposition, cleanse the military and transform the entire country in his own image. As if this wasn’t enough, more than 100 Turkish dissidents who sought asylum in other countries, including in the Balkans, were
kidnapped and sent to prisons in Turkey. I’m blessed that I’m in the U.S. and not in a dank prison cell...
Almost every week, I receive death threats. I’ve already
survived a kidnapping attempt in Indonesia. I have no idea what awaits me every time I travel somewhere. So I’ve been forced to miss games, including
one in London earlier this year, just because an autocrat 5,000 miles away wanted it to be so. And it has been an open question whether I will be able to go to Toronto to play against the Raptors on Christmas Day, as scheduled.
I wasn’t under any illusion that my activism was going to come without repercussion. But the disproportionate retaliation I received from the Turkish government for calling them out has also taken an enormous toll on my personal life, my family and everyone who has stood by me.
There are public figures who have been placed in Turkish prisons just because they’ve exchanged messages with me. There are fans allegedly under investigation for having my
autograph or for taking a photo with me. My sister, who is a doctor, cannot get a job because we share the same last name. My father, an academic, was dismissed from his position and
arrested; my mother hasn’t communicated with me for years now out of fear that she might get into trouble. All these efforts are just to silence me.
Turkey is so powerful and strategically located that there is not much the world can do to prevent this once semi-democratic country from sliding into autocracy. Still, the Western world shouldn’t let Mr. Erdogan harass dissidents that have fled to seek refuge. It is the least it can do.