Biden must protect Enes Kanter Freedom from Erdogan’s evil
Quin Hillyer
If it is true that Turkey has placed a $500,000 bounty on basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom, the United States should impose strong sanctions against Turkey.
Freedom’s only offense to the Mideast nation is that he has the temerity to criticize Turkey’s authoritarian Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Freedom speaks the truth. Erdogan is a malignant cancer in world affairs, under whom Turkey already erects multiple roadblocks to international harmony. Diplomatically, it is blocking Sweden from joining NATO. Militarily, it has been conducting murderous rampages in Syria. And that’s just a sample of its nefarious doings, some of which prompt my wise colleague Tom Rogan to argue that Turkey itself should be suspended from NATO.
ENES FREEDOM DEFIANT IN THE FACE OF TURKISH BOUNTY ON HIM
The outrageous bounty reportedly placed on the ace rebounder’s head is simply one major provocation too far.
It might be justifiable — but still not wise — to make Mr. Freedom the only issue in penalizing Turkey. Such a move, however, might backfire by putting even more of a spotlight and thus more of a target on Freedom’s back. Instead, the Biden administration should announce it is sanctioning Turkey because of a whole range of issues, of which this is merely the last straw.
To be sure, Biden should leave no doubt that the bounty is the immediate cause of what comes next. A president must make absolutely clear that no foreign nation is ever allowed to put a bounty on the head of a specific U.S. citizen in this fashion. Despite his Turkish origins, Freedom is a U.S. citizen, having shown the respect and seriousness necessary to become legally naturalized. As such, he merits the full protection of the U.S. government. If Turkey wants him arrested for daring to criticize its pathetically oversensitive dictator, it must follow international law and ask the U.S. to extradite Freedom.
In this case, the courageous athlete’s adopted last name is appropriate to show how wrongheaded Turkey would be even to request such U.S. action. Just as it makes no sense to extradite freedom as a concept — that’s an oxymoron if there ever were one — so, too, it makes no sense to extradite Freedom the ballplayer. It’s not as if Freedom’s criticisms of Erdogan’s corruption or human rights abuses are unique. Freedom is far from the only person who denounces Erdogan, and Turkey is far from the only international power that Freedom denounces.
Freedom is an outspoken human rights activist across the board, as he has shown gumption in blasting the Chinese Communist Party for its abuse of Tibetans and its genocidal policies against Uyghurs. As such, Freedom is a national treasure for his adopted country — a man of principle and bravery.
Yet even if Freedom were not an avid apostle of freedom, his mere status here as a law-abiding citizen should be enough to merit strong, public support, both physical and verbal, from the U.S. government.
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Biden has not been stellar in asserting the rights pertaining to U.S. citizenship, as shown by his administration’s public silence about the mistreatment of U.S. citizen Bassem Awadallah by the government of Jordan. The prominent case of Freedom, though, who remains a free man even as Erdogan wants him hunted down, is a perfect opportunity. Biden must make clear that anyone encouraging such vigilante injustice against a U.S. citizen, especially on U.S. soil, will receive cold and punitive fury in response.
If Biden won’t defend Freedom from vicious foreign malefactors, why is he even in the Oval Office?