Enes Kanter is facing a 4-YEAR, 8-month prison sentence back in his home country, according to Turkish media reports ... and it's all over his social media war on Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey's government-run news agency says the chief public prosecutor's office in Istanbul has indicted the Knicks star for his insulting tweets about Erdogan -- a man Kanter has previously referred to as the "Hitler of our century."
Back in May, Enes was detained at a Romanian airport because his Turkish passport was canceled. Kanter was ultimately allowed to return to the U.S. ... but he became a wanted man in Turkey after Erdogan labeled him a terrorist.
Enes said he would've been dead within days if he was shipped back to Turkey and jailed.
He's now hoping to become an American citizen -- and considers himself "country-less."