OGAE Turkey tries to make everyone feel comfortable in and around the venue of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. Esctoday.com spoke with Aykut Berber, president of the Turkish fanclub.
OGAE Turkey was launched in 2002 with only three active members. To stimulate the Turkish interest in the Eurovision Song Contest, OGAE Turkey established contact with the Turkish broadcaster TRT. During the last months, OGAE Turkey was in fact the bridge between TRT and the fans.
Currently, OGAE Turkey is a full-running organisation with one hundred active members, a good-looking magazine called D!nle and a website full of neccesary information. This year, OGAE Turkey pays more than extra attention to the Eurovision Song Contest of course! A special programme has been organised to make everyone feel home in Istanbul. On Monday, an opening night will start around 23:00 at Barbahce and during the qualifier round, those who cannot watch the show live can come to Barbahce too!
Aykut Beber, president of OGAE Turkey, is delighted to see the Eurovision Song Contest in Turkey: “it's very exciting to see that all these people who I met in other countries during previous contests are now visiting Turkey”, he said. Though, the Eurovision Song Contest is different and bigger than previous years: “it's very exciting to see all these countries here and to watch closely how TRT is handeling it”, Aykut said.
The main question around the press centre is who will win the upcoming contest. “I think Turkey and Belgium stand a strong chance to win the contest this year (…) because both of them are different than the rest”, Aykut said. Just like last year, he predicts a close run between his own country and Belgium. It'll sure be exciting…!
