Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Tuesday spoke out against police storming and cutting the broadcasting of radio and TV stations critical of the government, saying those are the acts of the coup tradition itself.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday Kılıçdaroğlu said, “The government is not the victim [of a coup d’état] but is responsible if a country turns into place where a coup d’état could occur within its 14 years of rule.”
Kılıçdaroğlu underlined that democracy can only be improved with a free media that does not submit to civilian coups and dictatorship.
Police teams raided the offices of the Hayatın Sesi TV and İMC TV television stations and Özgür Radyo, among 33 TV and radio stations removed from the Turkish Satellite Communications Company (Türksat) platform by government decree on Sept. 28, cutting off their broadcasts and detaining some of their staff. Türksat had recently removed those stations from its platform due to their critical stance toward the government.
People gathered at İstanbul’s famous Taksim Square on Tuesday to protest the closure of TV and radios stations critical of the government and chanted slogans saying, “Don’t touch my TV and radio.”