Journalist Tuğçe Yılmaz, editor of the Bianet news website, appeared in an İstanbul court on Tuesday on charges of “insulting the Turkish nation and the Republic of Turkey,” in an article featuring interviews with Armenian youths who refer to the mass killing of Armenians in the final days of the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
The charges stem from Yılmaz’s article, “Armenian Youth in Turkey Speak: Mourning That Has Lasted 109 Years,” published on April 24, 2024. The article was referred to authorities through a complaint filed via the Presidential Communication Center (CİMER), according to the Agos newspaper.
The first hearing at the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance drew a large group of observers, including representatives from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) and the Turkish Journalists’ Union (TGS). The next hearing is scheduled for April 21, 2026.
Yılmaz told the court she believed the complaint came from someone with biased views on a historically contentious topic such as the Armenian genocide, warning that prosecuting her in a period of dialogue with Armenia sends a chilling message to the press.
Her lawyers argued that the CİMER complaint lacked a legal basis to justify a prosecution, calling the case an instance of judicial harassment of a journalist. They said references to the Armenian genocide fall under protected speech, citing rulings by Turkey’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
Yılmaz was taken to a police station on June 3 to provide a statement and testified before a prosecutor the following day, saying her article merely relayed the views of those she interviewed and denying any wrongdoing.
Turkish courts have previously ruled that using the term “Armenian genocide” falls within the scope of free expression. On July 2, 2024, journalists Haluk Kalafat and Elif Akgül were acquitted of similar charges of “publicly insulting the Turkish nation” over six Bianet articles published between 2015 and 2019.
The Armenians — supported by historians and scholars — say 1.5 million of their people died in a genocide committed by the İttihat Terakki government of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians and Turks died in the conflict but firmly rejects the characterization of the deaths as genocide.
