Speaker 1: And this Cantor was a young basketball phenome, living and
Speaker 1: playing professionally in his native Turkey before eventually coming to
Speaker 1: the United States to play in the NBA. Currently, he
Speaker 1: plays center for the Portland Trailblazers, and his story would
Speaker 1: be the stuff of dreams if not for the specter
Speaker 1: of authoritarian leadership back at home. Turkish President Restip Urdwan's
Speaker 1: rule in Turkey started off in a promising direction, but
Speaker 1: soon devolved into corruption and authoritarianism as he shunned his
Speaker 1: party's political allies in the Ghoulan Movement, eventually labeling them
Speaker 1: a terrorist organization bent on taking over the government. Since then,
Speaker 1: over fifty thousand members of the Ghulan Movement have been
Speaker 1: arrested for nothing more than their political affiliation and his
Speaker 1: Cantor began using his platform as an NBA player to
Speaker 1: draw international attention to this dire situation, making him a
Speaker 1: wanted man in his beloved Turkey. Since efforts to silence
Speaker 1: nists have failed, Urdawan has brought down his ire instead
Speaker 1: upon Ennis's father. In two thousand eighteen, doctor Mehmett Cantor
Speaker 1: was sent to prison on false charges of terrorism. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: Sunlight proved to be the best disinfectant. When Ennis was
Speaker 1: able to use his platform as an NBA star to
Speaker 1: win his father's freedom, but he is keen to remind
Speaker 1: us that there are so many more political prisoners still
Speaker 1: suffering through the authoritarian rule of Urnawan. This is wrongful
Speaker 1: Conviction with Jason Plot. Welcome back to wrongful Conviction. Today's
Speaker 1: guest was wrongful convicted and absentia. His father was also
Speaker 1: wrongfully convicted. All of this happened in a foreign country,
Speaker 1: and all of it happened while he was playing in
Speaker 1: the NBA. So without further please allow me to introduce
Speaker 1: my friend, and it's Cantor, and it's welcome to wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having him. I really appreciate it. And
Speaker 1: and it's what a life, short life. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: not only born. You're like a kid to me, you know, um,
Speaker 1: but what a life you have led and what a
Speaker 1: courageous person you are. And we're going to get into
Speaker 1: all of that, but before we do, let's go back
Speaker 1: to the beginning. First of all, I think most people
Speaker 1: don't know you were born actually not in Turkey, in Switzerland, right, Yes,
Speaker 1: I wanted Switzerland. My dad was doing his master I
Speaker 1: stayed there for nine months and then I moved back
Speaker 1: to Turkey. And your father is doctor Memit Cantor with
Speaker 1: a professor of genetics, medical doctor, right, and you know
Speaker 1: we'll tell us about him. I mean he's a genetic professor. Obviously.
Speaker 1: He was all about education. And you know, I was
Speaker 1: told that all my classmates, you know, my classmates or
Speaker 1: my teammates were always making fun of me and said, hey,
Speaker 1: your dad at you know, play with your jeans, that's
Speaker 1: what you're so tall. But he was always all about education.
Speaker 1: He actually did not want me to play basketball at all.
Speaker 1: You know. He was telling me to hey, you know,
Speaker 1: your mom's a nurse. He's a jenic professor, so you
Speaker 1: are going to be a doctor or you're going to
Speaker 1: be a professor one day. Just stop wasting your time
Speaker 1: playing basketball. I told him that, listen that you know,
Speaker 1: I want to play basketball, but you know, go to
Speaker 1: school same time, and I can't do both. And he
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I'll give you a chance. If your
Speaker 1: grades are not good, you're couldn't basketball. I think your
Speaker 1: father and my father would have gotten a long grade.
Speaker 1: I wish my dad was still alive to meet him,
Speaker 1: to understand and it's story, you should understand a few
Speaker 1: things about Turkish history and politics. The Republic of Turkey
Speaker 1: formally the Ottoman Empire, has a very rich and tumultuous history,
Speaker 1: leaving a varying religious and ethnic identity in its wake.
Speaker 1: Just before World War One, a coupe brought about a
Speaker 1: constitutional democracy that saw to unite the diverse population under
Speaker 1: one national Turkish identity. This assertive secularism was problematic for
Speaker 1: the many faithful, who saw their religious identity shunned in public.
Speaker 1: Over the last century, this conflict between secularism and religious
Speaker 1: freedom has given rise to movements rivaling the secular, military,
Speaker 1: and intellectual elites. One such political group, the Ghoulan Movement,
Speaker 1: found a tactical political ally in the center right Religion Friendly,
Speaker 1: Justice and Development Party, also known as the AKP of
Speaker 1: resep Urdwan. That alliance brought the AKP to power and
Speaker 1: proved fruitful for the Ghulan movement, seeing many Gulan appointments
Speaker 1: in the judiciary and law enforcement until Urduan and the
Speaker 1: AKP began to consolidate power and devolved into corruption and authoritarianism.
Speaker 1: Any investigation into that corruption was met with wild accusations
Speaker 1: of a witch hunt and a judicial coup. The akp
Speaker 1: and Urduwan has since falsely labeled the Ghoulan movement a
Speaker 1: terrorist organized a purging thousands from their political appointments and
Speaker 1: arresting and persecuting over fifty thousand members of the peaceful
Speaker 1: Google and movement. Now what does it mean? I know
Speaker 1: that you're educated at his met affiliated schools which were
Speaker 1: part of the Ghoulan movement. Now can you explain why
Speaker 1: that's significant? First of all, that he's met the world
Speaker 1: itself means like serve. You know, it's a global you
Speaker 1: know social movement focuses on a three things secular education,
Speaker 1: fightermit poverty and social harmony around the globe and obviously
Speaker 1: inspired by an Islamic scholar, Fetula Golan, and he inspired
Speaker 1: millions of people around the world to open up you know,
Speaker 1: modern and secular schools and relief organizations. You know, the
Speaker 1: Gula Movements school in Turkey was the best schools in
Speaker 1: the whole country. Even I believed kids were going to
Speaker 1: the schools. You actually became acquainted with Patula Gulan, who
Speaker 1: has become the focal point of so much international intrigue
Speaker 1: and of course, your association with him probably was one
Speaker 1: of the things that put you in the cross hairs.
Speaker 1: You know, I remember first time meeting him, I believe
Speaker 1: it was back in two thousand thirteen. I was very
Speaker 1: curious about who this man, you know, behind all this.
Speaker 1: I took a trip to Pennsylvania to meet him with
Speaker 1: one of my friends, and you know, I still remember
Speaker 1: one thing that he told me that still inspires me
Speaker 1: every day. He's like, it doesn't matter what your background is,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what your belief your religion, your skin color.
Speaker 1: Is the most important thing in life is live your
Speaker 1: differences on the table and trying to find what we
Speaker 1: have in common. And he believes we have lots of
Speaker 1: problems are happening around the world because of uneducated people.
Speaker 1: You know, he's an his own scholar. But instead of
Speaker 1: him going around and build a mosques, he believed in education.
Speaker 1: And you know this moment have now schools and cultural centers.
Speaker 1: I believe, over one and seventy country in the world.
Speaker 1: And these organizations are not just for Muslim people. You know,
Speaker 1: you're a Jewish, you're Christian, Catholic, or your Muslim. You
Speaker 1: believe in God, you don't believe in God. You can
Speaker 1: go to these schools or these organizations and learn about
Speaker 1: method science or about life, you know. So, the ghoule
Speaker 1: and Movement and the currently ruling Justice and Development Party
Speaker 1: or a KP that of course is urda One's party
Speaker 1: were at one point allied, and at that time they
Speaker 1: championed the American quote unquote style of secularism that supported
Speaker 1: individual rights to freedom of religion over what we call
Speaker 1: assertive secularism. And they formed a tactical alliance in order
Speaker 1: to defeat their common foes through political means, which were
Speaker 1: the military leaders and the secular elitists. All of that
Speaker 1: sounds good, right, but then things took a turn in
Speaker 1: a very dark direction. And can you explain how that
Speaker 1: happened to this country that you grew up in and
Speaker 1: that I'm sure you loved and probably still loved to
Speaker 1: this day. So actually, Mr Guillan and ar don't you know,
Speaker 1: they have a couple of pictures together, but they were
Speaker 1: really never allies. Media wanted to make it look like
Speaker 1: they were allies, but they were never allies. And also
Speaker 1: untill two thousand twelve, Aardon was and he's going for democracy,
Speaker 1: He's going for freedom and all that stuff, and that's
Speaker 1: why lots of the people from you know, Guilla movements,
Speaker 1: not Julan himself, but the Guilan moment was votant for him.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people you know, from a KP
Speaker 1: party and Guilla movement become policemen, judges, or journalists or
Speaker 1: prosecutors and they were running the country really really well.
Speaker 1: So back in two thousand thirteen, that was a big
Speaker 1: corruptious candell happen in Turkey and president down his family
Speaker 1: and some of the congressman's close to are do one
Speaker 1: was involved. And when they cut his voice, when they
Speaker 1: cut his tape that he stole from people, it was
Speaker 1: a huge news because they come the whole world just
Speaker 1: so that ad On was a crop leader. You can
Speaker 1: literally go on YouTube and hear every word when he
Speaker 1: got cut, and obviously he got so mad he wanted
Speaker 1: to put everyone in jail who was saying that he
Speaker 1: stole from people. He's a crop leader, you know, So
Speaker 1: that's why he started putting people in jail, police, judges,
Speaker 1: prosecutors or media and started the shutdown media outlets, and
Speaker 1: he started shutting down prep schools in Turkey who are
Speaker 1: affiliated with Good that moment, and that is the first
Speaker 1: time I said something. I'm like, I don't care who
Speaker 1: you are. If you are fighting against education, I'm going
Speaker 1: to say something. I tweet something about it, and just
Speaker 1: because of you know, the platform that I have, it
Speaker 1: became a conversation in Turkey and America, and I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: I just see even power of one tweet. So from
Speaker 1: now on, I'm going to stop paying attention what's going
Speaker 1: on my country more because till then I only care
Speaker 1: about basketball, you know, just make a lot of money,
Speaker 1: take care of my family, take care of people I love,
Speaker 1: and just represent my country in America. But after that happened,
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I gotta be just more than a
Speaker 1: basketball player. And that's the first time I said to
Speaker 1: something and things just started. And you didn't just say something.
Speaker 1: I mean, you talked about other one as a lunatic,
Speaker 1: a dictator and even compared him with Hitler. So after
Speaker 1: I said something in two thousand thirteen, you know, things
Speaker 1: were getting worse and worse. And two thousand fifteen was
Speaker 1: the last time that I was back in Turkey. I
Speaker 1: only stayed there for like fourteen days, and I remember
Speaker 1: whenever I went there. My family were like scared and say,
Speaker 1: ns and you don't go out alone, you go on somewhere,
Speaker 1: just go with like a couple of your friends. Let
Speaker 1: us know where you're going and stuff. And then you know,
Speaker 1: that was the last time I saw them before I
Speaker 1: left my family. I remember that morning I had to
Speaker 1: sit down conversation which my family with my mom and
Speaker 1: dad and said, listen, there's a path that I'm taking,
Speaker 1: and whatever happens, I'm not going to back down. And
Speaker 1: because of the stand that I'm going to take, you
Speaker 1: guys are going to get harassed a lot. You guys
Speaker 1: might be in jail one day, and you guys might
Speaker 1: be like the most hated family in Turkey. I told
Speaker 1: him because I know where the conversations was gone. And
Speaker 1: I told him was like, listen, if you are with me,
Speaker 1: then you're with me. If not, then tell me now.
Speaker 1: So I can, you know, make up my mind and say, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm alone in this. My mom said, if you are
Speaker 1: you know, sending up for something good, something right, then
Speaker 1: we are with you. If not, then we are now
Speaker 1: with you. And I looked at my dad. My dad
Speaker 1: did not say a word. He didn't say anything because
Speaker 1: I'll be honest. All he wanted me to do is
Speaker 1: play basketball. And then I left. We call a cap
Speaker 1: and I remember my mom and my sister want to
Speaker 1: balcony to like to bade me goodbye, and I get
Speaker 1: in the cap up. I turned around and they were raven,
Speaker 1: and I told myself, this is the last time I'm
Speaker 1: seeing them. The Pacers Foundation is a proud supporter of
Speaker 1: this episode of Ronval Conviction with Jason Flam and of
Speaker 1: the Last Mile Organization, which provides business and tech training
Speaker 1: to help incarcerated individuals successfully and permanently re enter the workforce.
Speaker 1: The Pacers Foundation is committed to improving the lives of
Speaker 1: Hoosiers across Indiana, supporting organizations that are dedicated primarily to
Speaker 1: helping young people and students. For more information on the
Speaker 1: work of the Pacers Foundation or the Last Mile Program,
Speaker 1: please visit Pacers Foundation dot org or the Last Mile
Speaker 1: dot org. This episode is underwritten by the A i
Speaker 1: G Pro Bono Program. A i G is a leading
Speaker 1: global insurance company, and for over a decade, the a
Speaker 1: i G a Bono Program has provided thousands of hours
Speaker 1: of free legal services and other support to nonprofit organizations
Speaker 1: and individuals most in need. More recently, the program added
Speaker 1: criminal and social justice reform as a key pillar of
Speaker 1: its mission. Day two thousand sixteen is when or the
Speaker 1: One sees the Ghoulan newspaper called the Man and and
Speaker 1: then he recategorized the Ghoulan movement as the Fethula Terrorist
Speaker 1: Organization UM, which is its gaslighting. Right. He was turning
Speaker 1: into a terrorist state while calling the peace loving people
Speaker 1: the terrorists. But but then again, we see that here
Speaker 1: in America. Up until you know, Santuary twenty of this year,
Speaker 1: it looked like we were going down that road. So
Speaker 1: there was an attempted coup carried out by a factor
Speaker 1: of the Turkish armforces known as the Peace and Home Council,
Speaker 1: and everything went really crazy. How many people knows. But
Speaker 1: the night of the court attempt I was with Mr
Speaker 1: Gilland and he was shocked. He couldn't believe it. The
Speaker 1: first thing he did was called all his friends, all
Speaker 1: his students to get together and pray for Turkey because
Speaker 1: that night over two hundred and fifteens and people died
Speaker 1: after the courtem ared. One came out and blame the
Speaker 1: Guillan moment for the courtem and that moment. I was like,
Speaker 1: this is the craziest thing I have ever heard, because
Speaker 1: I saw what Mr Gilland did with my own eyes
Speaker 1: that night he sat in his chair and prayed for
Speaker 1: his country. And when everyone blamed the guiller moment and
Speaker 1: Mr Guilland for the courts, and I'm like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do whatever I can to tell this story to the
Speaker 1: whole world. And the Turkish government got really really mad
Speaker 1: because there was their plan, you know, the court tempt
Speaker 1: and then Arduine can pretty much become a one man show.
Speaker 1: Put everyone in jail whoever against them, shut down all
Speaker 1: the media outlets who are whoevers against them, or just
Speaker 1: put all the journalists and judges and change the military
Speaker 1: and everything. You know. Since this time, over a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand Googon followers have been purged from their civil service
Speaker 1: jobs and over fifty thousand have been arrested so far,
Speaker 1: you know, and who knows what's become of them. So
Speaker 1: after the attempted coup is when things started getting really
Speaker 1: scary for your family, your immediate family. You know. My
Speaker 1: dad got fire from each job, and my sister went
Speaker 1: to medical school for six years. She still cannot find
Speaker 1: a job. My little brother was playing basketball, and you know,
Speaker 1: he wanted to be an NBA player, but he was
Speaker 1: literally getting kicked out in every team because of the
Speaker 1: same last name. So they were getting affected so much.
Speaker 1: They had to put a statement out there and saying
Speaker 1: we are disowned Ennis. But Turkish government did not believe that.
Speaker 1: You know. They sent police to my house in Turkey
Speaker 1: and they rated the whole house and they took a
Speaker 1: really electronic way for owns computers, leftops and I paid
Speaker 1: because they wanted to see if I am still in
Speaker 1: contact with my family or not, if they would see
Speaker 1: any text message, email, phone call or whatever, they will
Speaker 1: be all in jail, which they took my dad in
Speaker 1: jail for a while, but we put so much pressure
Speaker 1: from here the Turkey they let him go. You know.
Speaker 1: I asked my brother like after my dad got out,
Speaker 1: like how's my dad doing? And my brother said, we
Speaker 1: asked him the questions like what happened in there? What
Speaker 1: do they ask you? What did they do to you?
Speaker 1: He never talked about it after, you know, he got
Speaker 1: out of jail. He was just watching the world and
Speaker 1: acting so weird and stuff. So I don't know what
Speaker 1: did they doing there to him, but he was just
Speaker 1: not the same person. And then, of course in two
Speaker 1: thousand and seventeen, you know, you were charged with terrorism,
Speaker 1: convicted in absentia, and you were facing four years in prison,
Speaker 1: and they came after you. Now this was at a
Speaker 1: time when and I don't know how. By the way,
Speaker 1: it's really remarkable to me, maybe basketball is your one
Speaker 1: place where you can for a couple of hours to
Speaker 1: and out, nobody can focus on the bad stuff. Twenty
Speaker 1: four hours a day, you go insane. So I'm glad
Speaker 1: that you have basketball, and it's incredible that you're able
Speaker 1: to focus on it and it continue to exceed expectations
Speaker 1: the way that you do. But two seventeen, this is
Speaker 1: the story that you told me overdid it right. So
Speaker 1: you were on the tour teaching kids, and then in
Speaker 1: Indonesia she went crazy. So we said, okay, after two
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen, we are definitely not going back to Turkey,
Speaker 1: and my managers like, let's do something for kids, and
Speaker 1: let's just go to these countries. Do basketball camp, talk
Speaker 1: about education, talk about social harmony, healthy lifestyle with respecting
Speaker 1: your parents, we talk about universal peace, and just do
Speaker 1: basketball camp. Because sports is an amazing tool to bring
Speaker 1: people together. You know, you can be from different countries,
Speaker 1: different colors, different days and that whatever, different beliefs, but
Speaker 1: you can cheer for the same team. So in two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen, we planned to visit seventeen country in like
Speaker 1: thirty five days, right, we start with Pacific. Visited Japan, Singapore, Philippines.
Speaker 1: But the same time, obviously my friends were saying, listen,
Speaker 1: Turkish government is like octopus. They got arms everywhere, so
Speaker 1: be careful. We visited the seven countries in the pacifics
Speaker 1: our last one was Indonesia. We held a basketball camp,
Speaker 1: we were meeting with Turkish communities, were visiting schools. End
Speaker 1: of the night, my friend asked me if you want
Speaker 1: to stay in a school or do you want to
Speaker 1: stay at the hotel. You know, he showed me a
Speaker 1: picture of the school. The beds were so small and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not going to fit here. So while
Speaker 1: I was at the hotel, I was sleeping. My manager
Speaker 1: not my door, but like two thirty am, something is
Speaker 1: that come to my room. We need to talk. We
Speaker 1: got a phone call from one of our friends and
Speaker 1: local in Jakarta is that there are some people in
Speaker 1: the school. We just had basketball clinic. They're asking for you,
Speaker 1: but we have no idea who they are. And he's like,
Speaker 1: what do you want to do. I was like, I
Speaker 1: want to stay because next day we have so many
Speaker 1: things as scheduled. He's like, this could be very dangerous.
Speaker 1: We need to escape the country. You know. It's very
Speaker 1: scary to be in a country that you don't know
Speaker 1: the language, you don't know the culture, you don't know
Speaker 1: the people there, and you are in danger and you
Speaker 1: literally trying to escape the whole country, you know. And
Speaker 1: we look at the flights. Our first flight was I
Speaker 1: believe five thirty am to Singapore. In fifteen minutes, I
Speaker 1: pack everything, we get in the cap. At the same time,
Speaker 1: while we go on the airport, we are taking a
Speaker 1: video and send it to our lawyers in America, like
Speaker 1: if something happens, so they can use that as a
Speaker 1: proof that we are about to get kidnapped. So we
Speaker 1: came to the airport, I mean obviously Indonesian, you know,
Speaker 1: people are not that tall, and everyone asking me questions like, hey,
Speaker 1: how tol you, what are you doing? Why are you here?
Speaker 1: So my friend just said to sit down in a
Speaker 1: chair and do not get up. I'm just gonna get
Speaker 1: the tickets and we're gonna leave. We got the tickets
Speaker 1: and we left the country at five thirty am and
Speaker 1: we landed in Singapore. My man just like, let's call
Speaker 1: our local guy there in Jakarta and see, like who
Speaker 1: was those people came to school that asking for you,
Speaker 1: And our local guys said, you guys are very lucky
Speaker 1: because those people they were intelligence service and army and
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to you, and that talk was not
Speaker 1: going to be just at talk. What usually Turkish government
Speaker 1: does is work with these countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and
Speaker 1: some of the other countries. You know. They took people
Speaker 1: there and put an a plane and set it back
Speaker 1: Toto a Turkey. So if you stay there that night,
Speaker 1: they could ship us back to the Turkey. And then
Speaker 1: we're like, okay, let's just go to Europe and do
Speaker 1: our basketball clinics there and do our events there. Our
Speaker 1: first stop was in Romania. It was my birthday and
Speaker 1: we had this like huge events. Thousands of people were
Speaker 1: gonna come, but we're gonna do a big events in
Speaker 1: Romania with some of the Turkish people there. So I
Speaker 1: gave my passport to this lady. She took like five
Speaker 1: time minutes and she said, hold on a second. She
Speaker 1: went in the back. She came out with a police
Speaker 1: and said, sir, your passport has been revoked. And I
Speaker 1: was like, hold on a second, why is my passport vote?
Speaker 1: The police said, we are not allowed to tell you,
Speaker 1: but if you want to learn more about it, you
Speaker 1: can call the Turkish embassy. And I'm like, those are
Speaker 1: the people who revoke my past, but I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: call him. So my marriage is like, we literally have
Speaker 1: like two or three hours to get out of Romania
Speaker 1: because if not, I'm not an American citizen. I still
Speaker 1: counted a Turkish city, so they could have just sent
Speaker 1: me back to Turkey. So we literally like have to
Speaker 1: three hours left the country. So I guess like the
Speaker 1: best way they just go back to America. Right. We're
Speaker 1: called every person we know, like congressman, senators, even like
Speaker 1: Texas NBA Players Association. So we getting up a flight.
Speaker 1: We were gonna land in London and come back to America.
Speaker 1: We landed in London and the captain announced and said
Speaker 1: nobody gets up, and me and my managers like, what's
Speaker 1: going on the plane doors are open, and there's this
Speaker 1: two police with machine guns came in the plane and
Speaker 1: they're looking for someone right, and they took someone behind us.
Speaker 1: I guess that was like a terrorist or someone in
Speaker 1: the plane. They took him out, but they took so
Speaker 1: long that we missed our New York plane. So there's
Speaker 1: this ticket lady is like, listen, there is no more
Speaker 1: flight to New York. You guys have to stay here.
Speaker 1: Don't worry. I'm gonna give you guys like a hotel
Speaker 1: and come back in. So we told the ladies, like
Speaker 1: we cooled, we're going to stay at the airport. And
Speaker 1: she was just so weirded out. It's like, what do
Speaker 1: you mean you guys cool. He's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we're cool. We're gonna stay at the airport. So that
Speaker 1: night we stayed at the airport. The next day, on
Speaker 1: one of our plane, there was this gentleman I still
Speaker 1: remember him, but like glasses jacket, very serious, like he
Speaker 1: asked for my green card again, my green card. He
Speaker 1: took some nose, called some people and he's like, okay go.
Speaker 1: Later on we learned that he was from Homeland Security.
Speaker 1: Because I didn't have a passport, so I wasn't going
Speaker 1: to be able to fly, so like Homeland Secretary got
Speaker 1: in and then we came in a plane. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this feels home. I Am not living here until I'm
Speaker 1: become an American citizen and then since then I'm here
Speaker 1: at any time, for however long it took two days,
Speaker 1: three days this journey. At any moment, you could have
Speaker 1: been done and you were facing four years in prison.
Speaker 1: But we know that that could have turned into very
Speaker 1: easily a death sentence, torture, or they could have extended
Speaker 1: it indefinitely because they could do whatever they wanted that country.
Speaker 1: Right now. I mean, let's face it, so this is
Speaker 1: a serious, serious thing that you went through. I mean,
Speaker 1: I hope you have a good therapist, because I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm going to need a therapist after listen to
Speaker 1: this story. You know, so you made it out alive
Speaker 1: and you got back to American soil. You're safe here.
Speaker 1: It's hard not to mention the fact that you aren't
Speaker 1: even able to go and play the Toronto Raptors on
Speaker 1: an away game because you simply can't leave the country
Speaker 1: without fear of being extradited to face this four year
Speaker 1: sentence or worse. But the Turkish authorities, after failing miserably
Speaker 1: to apprehend you, well, I'm sure there was help to
Speaker 1: pay back there for the people who weren't able to
Speaker 1: capture you. But they weren't done messing with you. And
Speaker 1: because they couldn't get you, they decided to extract their
Speaker 1: revenge on your family, on your father specifically, and in
Speaker 1: Tune of two thousand eighteen, your dad, doctor Mehmt Cantor,
Speaker 1: was tried, I'm going to call it a sham trial,
Speaker 1: charged with terrorism charges right again, the gas lighting bullshit,
Speaker 1: and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Of course, he
Speaker 1: appealed the charges, but that went nowhere, I mean even here.
Speaker 1: Those things usually go nowhere. But somehow or other, And
Speaker 1: I'm amazed by this, you were able to shine a
Speaker 1: light on this awful injustice and free your father in
Speaker 1: June of I'm amazed that that campaign was successful. But
Speaker 1: tell me what this is all about and how this
Speaker 1: affected you and how you were able to get him home? Right,
Speaker 1: I mean, so he was He's being going in a
Speaker 1: out of jails and in a lot of Turkish courts
Speaker 1: for years and years, right, So they were so scared
Speaker 1: of what I was like saying a band my Twitter
Speaker 1: account in Turkey. So if you go to Turkey right
Speaker 1: now and try to check what I tweeter or anythink
Speaker 1: you cannot see whatever I'm saying. But I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: right now, what can I do to bring more awareness
Speaker 1: to discounts. So that's why I started to work with
Speaker 1: some of the politicians, And you know, I want to
Speaker 1: do see many times and whenever I sit down and
Speaker 1: have a conversation with both sides, you know, Republicans and Democrats,
Speaker 1: and I started to tell them about my story, tell
Speaker 1: them about the people who are facing the same situation.
Speaker 1: They were like, we already know this conversation. Tell us
Speaker 1: how can we help you? And that actually gave me
Speaker 1: so much hope. So I started working with politicians, working
Speaker 1: with senators, working with congressman's and congresswoman's media really helped us,
Speaker 1: not just in America, but you know internationally, really really
Speaker 1: helped us to bring awareness of what's really going on
Speaker 1: in the Turkey. So and then you know, like we
Speaker 1: put so much pressure on them every time they touched
Speaker 1: my father or or every time my dad was about
Speaker 1: to go in to jail or going to a trial.
Speaker 1: We were bringing so much awareness to it. You know,
Speaker 1: we were writing offense about it, we were talking to
Speaker 1: media about it. And then in two thousand and twenty,
Speaker 1: my brother, the one in Greece he plays basketball now,
Speaker 1: finally texted me and said, my dad is free. They
Speaker 1: got to a point that were so scared they had
Speaker 1: to let him go. And you know a lot of
Speaker 1: people are like a lot of my teammates and friends
Speaker 1: have texted me and said, hey, man, you can finally relaxed.
Speaker 1: Now take a vacation. You can finally, you know, focus
Speaker 1: on yourself. But I was like, no, my fight is
Speaker 1: just getting started. You know, my family was only one.
Speaker 1: I never just did. They still only free my father.
Speaker 1: There are so many people out there. Their situation is
Speaker 1: way worse than my father's. Turkey is there still number
Speaker 1: one country in the world that proved most journalists in
Speaker 1: the jail. You know, we are just getting started. We
Speaker 1: are not going to stop till every innocent person in
Speaker 1: those prisons are free. Amen to that. It's a nightmare
Speaker 1: I can't even begin to imagine. And it's going to
Speaker 1: require people like you, people of good conscience, with courage
Speaker 1: and conviction is the only word I could think of. Ironically,
Speaker 1: who are going to ultimately bring about this change. It's
Speaker 1: the only thing that ever does, and otherwise it's going
Speaker 1: to say the same and get worse. Of course, we're
Speaker 1: gonna put links in the bio for people to learn
Speaker 1: more about this fast moving but slow motion nightmare that's
Speaker 1: taking place for so many people in that beautiful country
Speaker 1: of Turkey. And now we come to the part of
Speaker 1: our show, which is a segment that we call closing Arguments.
Speaker 1: It's the part of the show where first of all,
Speaker 1: I thank you and it Scantor for coming here, taking
Speaker 1: your time and sharing your remarkable journey, which is still
Speaker 1: unfolding as we speak. And then I turned my microphone
Speaker 1: off and leave yours on. This is the part of
Speaker 1: the show where you get to say whatever you want,
Speaker 1: anything that's been left unsaid, anything you want to tell people.
Speaker 1: But please, as part of that offer any advice you
Speaker 1: can give to people who are listening. Say I'm just
Speaker 1: one person I want to help, and I don't know
Speaker 1: what to do. What can I what can people do
Speaker 1: to help? First of all, I think you know, just
Speaker 1: there's not just one authoritarian regime in the world. You know,
Speaker 1: Turkey is not the only one. There are so many
Speaker 1: of them authors in the world that I feel like
Speaker 1: the best that we can do is just standing up
Speaker 1: against those regimes. That is the one question I was
Speaker 1: always getting, like what can we do to help? So
Speaker 1: that's why we started this initiative called you Are My
Speaker 1: Hoping campaign. We are planning to collect signatures. You can
Speaker 1: go to you are My Hope dot org and sign
Speaker 1: the initiative and with those signatures, we are planning to
Speaker 1: take them to a White House, United Nations, human right courts,
Speaker 1: maybe European Parliament and says listen, there are so many
Speaker 1: human right abuses are happening in Turkey. There are so
Speaker 1: many political prisoners, and there are so many journalists are
Speaker 1: in the general now waiting for help. There are thousands
Speaker 1: of people are behind this cows. There are so many
Speaker 1: signatures behind the cows. So let's take some action. That
Speaker 1: is the one thing you guys can do. It will
Speaker 1: take one minute of your day. You are my Hope
Speaker 1: out or and signed the initiative. We already got over
Speaker 1: eighty tho signatures so far. But other than that, I
Speaker 1: feel like the best way to just beat those regimes
Speaker 1: just educate yourself because they're really scared of educated people
Speaker 1: because they only want yes mens around them, and people
Speaker 1: who's not gonna ask any questions and do whatever they
Speaker 1: want them to do. You know, I feel like the
Speaker 1: education is the best way to just beat those regimes.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrong for Conviction with Jason Flam.
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence projects and go to the
Speaker 1: link in our bio to see how you can help.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff
Speaker 1: Clyburne and Kevin Warns. The music on the show, as always,
Speaker 1: is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
Speaker 1: sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason
Speaker 1: Flam is a production of for Good Podcasts in association
Speaker 1: with Signal Company Number one h