Romanian minister defends keeping Kanter at airport

Romania's foreign minister says his country had no choice in detaining Oklahoma City Thunder center Enes Kanter in the capital's airport.

Teodor Melescanu said Romania could not "proceed otherwise" in comments made to news.ro. He declined to comment further.

Kanter was detained at Henri Coanda Airport on Saturday before departing to the United States via London.

The basketballer, who is Turkish, said in a video Saturday on his Twitter account that the Turkish embassy canceled his passport and that he'd been detained for several hours at a Romanian airport.

Melescanu spoke Sunday from the summit of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, taking place in Istanbul.