Enes Kanter received by Primate of Greek Orthodox Church; repeats stinging criticism of Turkish president

The influential head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, on Wednesday welcomed Turkish-American NBA star Enes Kanter and his party to the Archdiocese headquarters in downtown Athens.

The Primate of the Church of Greece greeted the highly visiting basketball star and outspoken human rights champion – who legally changed his name to Enes Kanter Freedom after acquiring US citizenship in 2021 – and asked him of his impressions of the east Mediterranean country.

Kanter said he’s visited Greece several times and repeated the phrase on a T-shirt he was wearing: “We are family”, featuring both the Greek and Turkish flags.

In repeating his very high-profile comments in the Greek capital over the past two days, Kanter said he could not understand any reason for friction between his home country and Greece, while stressing that “(Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan does not represent the Turkish people”.

Kanter did not mince his words in adding that Erdogan “hates Greeks and wants war”, attributing the latter to ploy to win elections in Turkey next year.