The license of an independent Turkish radio station was revoked on the grounds that she let a guest on a station show talk about her “Armenian genocide”, the Supreme Radio and Television Council of Turkey (RTÜK) announced today.

“RTÜK revoked the license of Açik Radyo. The reason is that the station’s management did not respect the five-day suspension (on one of its programs) imposed for “inciting hatred and enmity”“, RTÜK member Ilhan Tasci, appointed by the opposition, said in a post on X.

Didem Gedsurk, program coordinator of this Istanbul-based radio station, confirmed to AFP the decision of the Broadcasting Council.

The Açik Radyo, which has been broadcasting for nearly 30 years and says it is “open to all voices,” was fined in late May and banned for five days from broadcasting its April 24 show. In this show, a guest referred to the massacres of Armenians committed in 1915 by Ottoman troops, characterizing these massacres as “genocide”, as many historians do.

RTÜK, in its decision, criticized the station for not “attempted to correct the guest’s statements».

The Armenian Genocide of 1915 is recognized as such by the governments and parliaments of many countries, including the US, France and Germany. The number of Armenians massacred is estimated at between 600,000 and 1.5 million.

Turkey, which emerged from the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in 1920, continues to reject the term “genocide” and refers to “massacres” and famine that killed 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks.

In a press release published after the decisions, Açik Radyo recalled that it had “always defended freedom of thought and expression and freedom of the press.”

“No expression in the penalized program exceeded (these) limits“, write down.

“RTÜK’s (…) decision on Açik Radyo clearly contradicts Article 26 of the Constitution which regulates freedom of thought and expression,” the Turkish journalists’ union TGS reacted to X.