Oklahoma City Thunder's Enes Kanter released after being detained in Romania airport

Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter was released Saturday after being detained at a Romanian airport when he said his passport was canceled by his home country of Turkey because of his political views.

Kanter, a six-year NBA veteran, was permitted to leave Romania and is in London, the NBA told the New York Times.

"Today at around 1 p.m. local time an individual arrived from Frankfurt," Romanian border police spokesman Fabian Badila told the Times. "My colleagues established that his travel documents weren't valid, that they had been canceled by his home country, so he wasn't allowed to enter the country.

"At around 5 p.m., he left the airport on a flight to London. While he was at the airport he wasn't detained or locked up, he was allowed to wander around, but he couldn't enter the country."

Kanter, who turned 25 on Saturday, arrived in Bucharest from Jakarta, Indonesia, as part of his 2017 Enes Kanter Light Foundation global tour.

Kanter tweeted a picture of himself posing with officials at the airport after earlier posting videos on Twitter in English and Turkish in which he called Turkey president Tayyip Erdogan "the Hitler of our century."

"What's up world, just wanted to say we are in Romania," Kanter said in the video. "They said they canceled my passport by Turkish embassy. They've been holding us here for hours by these two police. You know, the reason behind it is just of course my political views. And the guy who did it is Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey."

Kanter has been an outspoken critic of Erdogan that has caused tensions in his home country.

Erdogan visited Washington, D.C., this week to meet with President Trump at the White House and while there his bodyguards were captured on video attacking protesters outside the Turkish ambassador's home on Embassy Row.

"He's attacked people in Washington. He's a bad, bad man. He's a dictator. And he's the Hitler of our century," Kanter said in the video. "I will keep you posted guys, but just pray for us, and I'll tell you guys what's going on."

Kanter posted another tweet following the incident at the airport, stating that he will hold a press conference on Sunday in New York to discuss some "crazy stories."

The 6-foot-11, 245-pound Kanter averaged 14.3 points and 6.7 rebounds in 72 games this season for the Thunder. He was selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz before getting traded to the Thunder in February 2015.

I'm being held at Romanian airport by Police!! pic.twitter.com/uYZMBqKx54

— Enes Kanter (@Enes_Kanter) May 20, 2017