Kardashians convince NBA star not to come to Turkey

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

In their reality show ‘Khloe & Lamar,’ NBA star Lamar Odom’s wife Khloe Kardashian said his playing for a Turkish team could upset her Armenian fans.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey have become a topic on the “Khloe & Lamar” show, aired in the U.S. on the E! network, after Kim Kardashian pressured her brother-in-law, basketball star Lamar Odom, to change his mind about his planned transfer to Turkey, because of concerns about the Armenian “genocide” of 1915, the Milliyet daily has reported.

Khloe Kardashian, Odom’s wife, expressed concern that his playing for a Turkish team could upset her Armenian fans. Kardashian’s brother Robert also said it would be uncomfortable and strange for the family, while her sister Kim recalled the debate that arose when her image appeared on the cover of a Turkish magazine last year.

“I do not want to offend anyone in my culture. I’ve been thinking about Turkey a lot, because I’m Armenian,” Kim Kardashian said.

In the final episode of the reality show “Khloe & Lamar,” which follows the Kardashian family, Khloe Kardashian changes her own mind and influences her husband’s decision, after Kim Kardashian voices her objections to Odom’s possible transfer to Turkey’s Beşiktaş Milangaz team, which made Odom an offer during the NBA lockout.

The Kardashians are a American family of Armenian descent. Kim Kardashian caused tensions last April when she sued the Turkish branch of an international magazine for using her picture on the cover of its April issue.