ISTANBUL: After more than 30 years on air, Istanbul’s Acik radio fell silent on Wednesday after the station was shut down by Turkish authorities, six months after a guest spoke on air about the “Armenian genocide”.
“There are our last moments,” broadcast coordinator Didem Gencturk said inside a small booth just minutes before 1:00 pm (1000 GMT), when Acik Radyo stopped broadcasting, with both staff and supporters applauding in a show of solidarity. “We will continue to exist,” she said, as many employees had tears in their eyes as the room went dark.
“We have mixed feelings, the realist and idealist elements are constantly in conflict,” Ilksen Mavituna, another of Acik’s broadcast coordinators, told AFP. “The realist side says we should look ahead, that digital channels can be used easily,” he said.
“But this is our last broadcast on FM — a great treasure created with contributions from thousands of listeners over 30 years. That, we are losing,” he said.
Turkey’s broadcasting watchdog RTUK suspended Acik Radyo for five days in May on grounds of allegedly inciting hatred.
It then withdrew the station’s licence in July, though the radio had continued broadcasting until now.
The sanctions came after an April broadcast in which a guest called the 1915 killings of Armenians in the final days of the Ottoman Empire “genocide”.
It is a term many historians agree on but which successive Turkish governments have fiercely disputed.
The station’s website was available Wednesday but its radio frequency was silent.
Acik describes itself as “open to all sounds, colours and vibrations of the universe”, with its broadcasts addressing human rights, minority rights and ecological crises.
Melis Behlil, Acik’s film critic, called it a “community radio”. “It’s very important that people have a radio that they set up and maintain and support themselves,” she told AFP.
“That independence is extremely valuable in terms of not representing any power centre, for people being able to express their thoughts freely and being open to the voices of the world,” she said.
Mavituna, the broadcast coordinator, agreed. “Acik Radyo is alive with the support of its listeners. The strength of this bond was a factor that guaranteed our independence,” he said.
Meral Erbil, a retired broadcaster with state-run TRT who showed up to express support, said Acik was a unique radio station in Turkey.
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