The voice of resistance: Dengê Avrîn

For four years Radio Dengê Avrîn (Voice of Avrîn) continues to broadcast despite Turkish attacks against Efrîn Canton.

Dengê Avrîn is a FM radio station broadcasting to the Efrîn Canton. It’s now on air for 4 years. The radio station started broadcasting in 2013 in the Hac Xelil village in Efrîn region and managed to reach a larger audience in Efrîn Canton.

In June 2016, the radio station moved to Efrîn city center. There 5 women and 3 men working in the radio station.

Radio Dengê Avrîn is broadcasting 12 hours a day, starting at 8 am with the radio show; 'Roj baş' (Good morning) and continues afterward with news bulletins covering regional and global topics in Arabic and Kurdish languages. Local political developments are also covered as well as cultural, political, social, artistic and women's programs.

The radio's broadcast policy is based on freedom of thought and speech. It broadcasts its music programs, news reports and social issues talks in this framework.

On the 28th April 2017 the radio stations’ building was bombarded by Turkish army. After the attack, a new base station was installed and the radio started to broadcast on a new frequency 102.5.

However as their new frequency got jammed many times by the Turkish army, the broadcast has been moved again to the previous 93,00 frequency.

Radio Dengê Avrîn is also live broadcasting on the internet from this address: http://avrin.fm/radio/index.htm.

On the occasion of the 4th anniversary of the radio's establishment, radio host and member of the radio management Istirvan Coco spoke with the news agency ANHA and said that the radio personnel built the radio with their own effort and also they increased the quality of their broadcasts.

Istirvan stated that the Turkish state's efforts to silence the voice of the free media is causing their broadcasting some problems and said: "On the 4th anniversary we declare that no attack will ever be able to break our will and we will always follow the path of the martyrs of the truth."

Mîtan Zerdeştî, a technical staff worker, also stated that no matter how severe the attacks of the Turkish state are going to be, they will continue to deliver the voice of the truth.

Radio employee Zîlan Ebdullah also said working for the press requires courage and the desire to learn. "When we first took part in this work, we knew that many sides were not ready to accept the facts. We make the voices of the people heard and we will never submit to the attacks of the Turkish state” she said.