Turkey shuts down broadcaster after Armenia genocide row

Istanbul-based Acik Radyo announced on Wednesday it was being shut down by the authorities, six months after a guest talked about the “Armenian genocide” on air.

But it has vowed to fight on and find a way to keep working.

Turkey’s broadcasting watchdog RTUK had already suspended Istanbul-based Acik Radyo from broadcasting for five days in May for the programme in question, which it said incited hatred.

The media regulator withdrew the station’s licence in July but the radio had been broadcasting until now.

“Acik Radyo’s terrestrial broadcast will be cut off today at 1300 local time (1000 GMT). Stay tuned for developments,” the station said on X, formerly Twitter.

The sanctions came after a guest on a show in April called the 1915 killings of Armenians in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire “genocide”. It is a term many historians agree on but which Turkey fiercely disputes.

Acik Radyo urged its listeners to raise “an even clearer and louder voice” against the shutdown.

“Our radio has become an amplifier for civilian voices in many fields from the struggle for climate and the environment to public health, and from gender equality to multiculturalism,” the station said Friday.

“Acik Radyo has not restricted itself to radio frequencies, and there can be no doubt that it will continue its duty as an independent medium,” it added.

“Our radio cannot and will not be silenced.”

Acik Radyo said it would pursue legal means against the measure.

The station, which has been broadcasting for three decades, describes itself as a station “open to all sounds, colours and vibrations of the universe”.

Turkey is ranked in 158th place out of 180 countries in its index of press freedom this year.

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Armenia says Ottoman forces massacred and deported more than 1.5 million Armenians during World War I between 1915 and 1917.

Around 30 countries have recognised the killings as genocide, a charge vehemently rejected by Turkey.

Ankara admits nonetheless that up to 500,000 Armenians were killed in fighting, massacres or by starvation during mass deportations from eastern Anatolia.