Thunder center Enes Kanter tweets that his father has been arrested by the Turkish government

Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter, a native of Turkey, tweeted Friday that his father had been arrested by the Turkish government.

Kanter is an outspoken critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and supporter of Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who is living in exile in the U.S. Gulen has been blamed by the Turkish government for an attempted military coup last summer, but he denies the accusation.

A warrant for Kanter’s arrest was reportedly issued in Turkey last month, accusing him of “being a member of a terrorist organization.”

His father, Mehmet Kanter, was detained at his Istanbul home as part of an investigation by a prosecutor’s office in northwestern Turkey, the Anadolu news agency reported on Friday.

The Dogan news agency reported that the investigation has to do with ties to Gulen.

But Mehmet Kanter has disagreed with his son’s political views and publicly disowned him last summer.

The Thunder big man expressed concern about his family’s well-being last week following his return to the U.S. after he was briefly detained in Romania when his passport was revoked by the Turkish government .

“Right now, even if I try to communicate with my parents, my mom or dad or brother or sister, [the government] will probably listen to their phones and as soon as they are in contact with me, they will put them in a jail — and the jails are not fun,” Kanter said.

“Right now, my family can’t even go out to eat. My brother told me that my dad went to the supermarket and they spit on his face.”

charles.schilken@latimes.com

Twitter: @chewkiii

UPDATES:

2:15 p.m.: This article has been updated with background information.

This article was originally published at 11:05 a.m.