Enes Kanter Freedom has been one of the harshest public critics of the Turkish head of state Erdogan for years. Now the former Turkish national basketball player is on a wanted list in his home country. A large reward is offered for his capture.
To describe Enes Kanter Freedom as a feisty character is probably an understatement. The 30-year-old is actually a basketball player in his main job, has played more than 800 games in the NBA since 2011, the strongest league in the world, wore the jerseys of legendary clubs such as Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, and also played for the Portland Trail Blazers , Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz. In the meantime, however, the 2.08-meter man is making headlines, especially off the court – currently with the next escalation level of his years-long conflict with the Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Because Erdogan has put the former Turkish national player on the wanted list, put him on the “Most Wanted” list and declared him a terrorist. The international media report unanimously. According to the New York Post, Turkey is offering up to 10 million Turkish liras – around $500,000 or €460,000 – for information leading to Kanter Freedom’s seizure. According to the US newspaper, it is the first time that Turkey has offered such a bounty.
“That’s what makes it so dangerous,” the New York Post quoted the currently clubless basketball player as saying. So far, the Turkish secret services have been after him, but now “everyone because they want the money.” He wrote on Twitter: “I am stunned that Erdogan is threatening the life of a US citizen in the United States.” Former soccer player Hakan Sükür, the country’s record goalscorer with 51 international goals, is also on the list as an enemy of the state list. Sükür now also has his center of life in the USA.
“Now they want to take my life”
Kanter Freedom, who was born in Switzerland, grew up in Turkey and is now at home in the USA, has repeatedly taken on the autocrat Erdogan for years. Describing him as a “dictator” and the “Hitler of our century” publicly denounced the human rights violations by the Turkish government and its actions against dissidents. In 2017, his Turkish passport was declared invalid, and after being arrested in Romania, he returned to the United States as a self-confessed “stateless person”. He has been a US citizen since 2021 and changed his name to Freedom.
The bounty increases concerns about his safety, the 30-year-old said “New York Post”: He is in constant contact with US authorities and the FBI, is “protected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”. Kanter Freedom is speaking out about his being on the wanted list because “I’m not the only one on it.” There are “so many journalists, so many activists” who are not as well known as he is: “They are much easier targets – and they are on their own.”
Kanter Freedom has been without an NBA club since his release from the Houston Rockets in spring 2022. According to the “New York Post”, he is currently organizing basketball camps and traveling around the world to campaign for human rights, he posts regularly on his Twitter account of roundtables with politicians. After appearances on Fox News, however, he was also accused of to be exploited by right-wing populists and right-wing extremists. In response to a message about his inclusion on the “Most Wanted” list, Kanter Freedom tweeted, “Now they want to take my life” and thanked them for the numerous messages of support.