According to Cenk Uygur , the name of the show was chosen because it is a popular colloquialism . According to the American Heritage Dictionary , one definition of a Young Turk is " a young progressive or insurgent member of an institution , movement , or political party . " The name was earlier used by a rebellious group of Congressmen within the Republican Party , of which Gerald Ford was a prominent member , who had become disenchanted with the course of the Party during the early 1960s as well as other political groups around the world . However , the Young Turks show has been criticized for the name , as the original Young Turks political movement committed the Armenian Genocide , and that in 1991 Cenk Uygur wrote an article in '' The Daily Pennsylvanian '' in which he promoted Armenian Genocide denial . In 2016 , he rescinded these statements , arguing : " My mistake at the time was confusing myself for a scholar of history , which I most certainly am not . I do n’t want to make the same mistake again , so I am going to refrain from commenting on the topic of the Armenian Genocide , which I do not know nearly enough about . "
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Young Turks