Turkey: TRT will not participate in Eurovision 2014

by Sanjay (Sergio) Jiandani 6,046 views

TRT, the Turkish national broadcaster has confirmed to esctoday.com that Turkey will not participate at the forthcoming 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark next year. Hence we will not see a Turkish entry in Copenhagen.

The Turkish broadcaster has informed esctoday.com that Turkey does not close the door to the contest, hence leaving the door open of a possible return to the event in the near future.

Turkey missed out on competing in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 and will not compete in 2014.

Turkey decided to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest last year. TRT, the national Turkish broadcaster, announced in a communique on their official website on the 14th of December 2012  that Turkey would  not compete at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden . The broadcaster’s reasons for withdrawing from this year’s event were that the changes in the voting system of the contest: introduction of 50/50 jury and televoting deliberation, and the Big 5 rule, enabling  Spain, Italy, UK, France and Germany to automatically qualify every year for the final. The broadcaster expressed its discontent regarding these rules and felt they are not fair. You can read more about it here.

Turkey debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975 with Semiha Yanki’s Seninle bir dakika.Turkey won the contest in 2003 with Sertab Erener’s Every way that I can and successfully hosted the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest on home soil in Istanbul.

Stay tuned to esctoday.com for the latest news on Turkey and the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest.