Former NBA player and activist Enes Kanter Freedom has said New York City Mayor Eric Adams withdrew his support for him due to orders from the Turkish government since Freedom is a follower of the faith-based Gülen movement, labelled as a terrorist organization by Turkey.
Adams is charged with bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals in a 57-page indictment unsealed last Thursday. The indictment accuses him of accepting illegal donations and more than $100,000 worth of free plane tickets and luxury hotel stays from wealthy Turkish nationals and at least one government official in a nearly decade-long corruption scheme.
Adams is accused of granting political favors to the Turkish government in return for the bribes.
One of those favors, according to Freedom, was to end their relationship.
He told cable news network NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” he felt he got the cold shoulder from Adams after the two of them were invited to Greece to accept an award.
“Me and Eric had a conversation about organizing free basketball camps for kids in New York. And I remember he got so excited. He gave me his phone number and said, ‘As soon as you come back, let me know,’” Freedom said.
But the former player, who spent two seasons with the New York Knicks, said that when he returned from the 2022 trip, Adams ghosted him.
Freedom also said friends in the Turkish expatriate community told him that in 2016 Turkish officials warned then-Brooklyn Borough President Adams to “steer clear of a major Turkish American grassroots organization in New York because they oppose [Turkish president] Erdogan – because they stand with democracy and human rights in Turkey. And right after that, Eric promptly distanced himself from the organization.”
The Turkish organization is referred as the “Community Center” in the indictment without mention of its name, but it is believed to be the Gülen-linked Turkish Cultural Center Brooklyn, part of a non-profit organization promoting intercultural and inter-religious dialogue.
According to the indictment, a Turkish government official told Adams, who had a relationship with the Turkish community center in Brooklyn, in or around 2016, that the community center was affiliated with a Turkish political movement that was hostile to Turkey’s government and that if Adams wanted to continue receiving support from the government, he could no longer be associated with the community center, a demand to which Adams acquiesced.
The Gülen movement is accused by the Turkish government and President Erdoğan of masterminding a failed coup in 2016 and is labeled as a “terrorist organization,” although the movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Following the coup attempt the Turkish government launched a massive crackdown on Gülen-linked people and organizations not only in Turkey but also abroad, pressuring other countries’ governments to close down Gülen-affiliated organizations and to close their doors to Gülen followers.
Freedom, who has not had a team to play for since 2022, reportedly for speaking out against human rights abuses around the world, has lived mainly in the United States for more than a decade and has used his substantial platform as an international star athlete to condemn Turkey’s pivot towards authoritarianism under President Erdoğan and its crackdown on the Gülen movement members.
Turkey canceled his passport in 2017 and attempted to have him deported from Romania on May 20 of the same year, during one of his international trips. His passport was briefly seized by the Romanian police upon a request from the Turkish government. The NBA said it had worked with the State Department to ensure his release in Romania.
On the Turkish Interior Ministry website, Freedom is described as a member of a terrorist organization due to his affiliation with the Gülen movement.
Although the Turkish government has classified the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization, none of its Western allies have fallen for Ankara’s portrayal and consider the group a civic initiative focused on educational activities. Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, lives in exile in the United States, which has refused to extradite him to Turkey on the grounds that there is no substantial evidence that he committed a crime.