How NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom ended up on Turkey's most wanted list

Enes Kanter Freedom is a Turkish-American basketball player who last played for the Boston Celtics as a center in 2022.

The former NBA big man was drafted third in the 2011 NBA Draft, playing eleven seasons in the league and averaging 11.2 points and 7.8 rebounds in his career.

Over the last few years, Enes Kanter's focus has been his political ideologies, which have become detrimental to his basketball game, subsequently seeing a lack of opportunities in the NBA.

Enes Kanter changed his name to Enes Freedom during the 2021-2022 season after he gained his United States citizenship.

Why did he change his name from Enes Kanter to Enes Freedom?

According to sportkeeda.com, Freedom said: "Here (in the U.S.), there is freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of the press," he said. "I didn't have any of those with Turkey."

In his home country of Turkey, Freedom formed a close relationship with Fethullah Gulen, the founder of 'Hizmet.' An Islamic group whose moral values are based on universal education for all and tolerance of all cultures.

The 'Hizmet' movement is recognized as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government, Northern Cyprus, Pakistan, and the Arab Gulf.

Enes Freedom has publicly spoken on his support of the 'Hizmet' movement, believing that being Muslim comes with a duty to help people.

Freedom became publicly critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the 2013 corruption scandal in Turkey, where 52 people were detained for allegations of bribery, corruption, and gold smuggling.

According to theguardian.com, three years later, Freedom called the president the 'Hitler of our century' after a failed coup attempt on the president's government from a section of the Turkish Armed Forces.

Soon after his unbelievable comments against the president, Enes Freedom's family publicly disowned him due to his political beliefs and ties with Gulen.

Enes loved Gulen more than his family and informally changed his name to Enes Gulen before changing it formally to Enes Freedom when he was granted his US citizenship.

The former NBA player has had his passport canceled by the Turkish government and also issued an arrest warrant for his ties with the 'Hizmet' movement.

In 2019, Turkey put an extradition request on Enes Freedom and requested that Interpol put a red notice for his arrest.

According to voanews.com, in January this year, Freedom was added to Turkey's terrorist most wanted list, with a reward of $26,600 for any information regarding his whereabouts.