Greta Thunberg visits the Turkish radio station that is closed due to the genocide in Armenia

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Friday visited Acik Radyo in Istanbul, whose broadcasts were silenced by Turkish authorities earlier this month after a guest spoke on air about the “Armenian genocide,” the channel said.

“Greta supports Acik Radyo,” it wrote on X, posting a video of the 21-year-old activist expressing his support for the broadcaster whose name means “open radio.”

“Open Radio must remain open! I support Acik Radyo. It is more important than ever that we have honest media platforms that tell the truth about the climate crisis and human rights,” said Thunberg.

Turkey’s broadcasting watchdog RTUK suspended Acik Radyo for five days in May for alleged incitement to hatred, then revoked its license in July, although the channel continued to broadcast until mid-October.

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 era “genocide.”

Many historians agree with the term, but it has been hotly contested by successive Turkish governments.

Acik Radyo was co-founded about thirty years ago by the prominent Turkish environmental activist Omer Madra. Acik Radyo’s broadcasts covered human rights, minority rights and ecological issues.

The last broadcast was on October 16, but the channel has promised to appeal the ban and return to the airwaves.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced the closure, saying the channel “epitomized pluralistic information, respect for cultural and political minorities, as well as the fight for the climate and ecological awareness”.

Armenia says Ottoman forces massacred and deported more than 1.5 million Armenians during World War I between 1915 and 1917, with some 30 countries recognizing the killings as genocide.

Turkey rejects the accusation, although it acknowledges that up to 500,000 Armenians died in ethnic fighting, massacres or famine during mass deportations from eastern Anatolia.