Kanter said he became publicly critical of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2013 due to the corruption scandal in Turkey. After the failed 2016 "coup d'état" attempt, Kanter criticised Turkish president Erdoğan on Twitter, calling him the "Hitler of our century". Soon after the coup attempt in July, his father and his family publicly disowned him due to his political views and his support for Gülen, imploring him to change his surname, on August 8. Kanter stated that he loves Gülen "more than his family", informally changing his name to Enes Gülen. His father was dismissed from his university position a few weeks later, via government decree numbered 272 on September 1, as part of 2016–17 Turkish purges. Also, Kanter has received backlash from former NBA player Hedo Turkoglu. Turkoglu has called Kanter’s comments “irrational”.