Turkey revokes license of local radio station for using term ‘Armenian Genocide’

Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council has revoked the license of Açık Radyo for discussing the Armenian Genocide during its broadcast on April 24.

The Council has decided to fine the radio station and suspend its broadcasting for using the term “Armenian Genocide.” Despite paying the fines, Açık Radyo continued its broadcasts, something the Council considered a violation of the sanctions.

The Council, consisting of nine members and dominated by representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party, decided to close the radio station because it did not stop broadcasting, which, according to the council, violated the article “inciting hatred and hostility among society.”

The efforts of thirty years of radio broadcasting since 1995 are being nullified by one decision. Turkey’s more democratic and open-minded intelligentsia is worried, but not surprised, since the list of non-government media penalized by the Council is long.

Since the very first day of its establishment, Açık Radyo has been defending fundamental human rights and freedoms, promoting multicultural life, relations between cultures and identities. The weekly AKOS has been broadcast on the radio for many years. To date, the radio has produced more than 1,200 programs on politics, sociology, psychology, culture, environmental protection, and many other areas with the efforts of more than 1,300 volunteers.