Will TRT and Turkey return to the Eurovision Song Contest? Will we see a Turkish song back on the Eurovision stage in 2016?

On the 6th of February Turkish media reported on the alleged return of TRT and Turkey to the competition in 2016. The news was reported both in local and international media, whilst social media platforms went viral with the news. Hurriyet, Daily Sabah, France 24, Haberler, Today’s Zaman, Daily Hurriyet are among the many news portals which have reported the news.

Hereafter ESCToday decided to contact the Turkish broadcaster in order to shed more light to the matter.

TRT, the Turkish national broadcaster told ESCToday that Turkey plans to return to Eurovision next year.

It is still early days to talk about the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest as we are still in early 2015 and the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is yet to be held in Vienna next May. News and confirmations from countries wishing to compete at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest will be available after the 2015 edition and most likely by the end of the summer.

Turkey has been absent from the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 and 2014. The country had initially announced it would not compete at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna .Last  September the former general director of  TRT  Mr. Ibrahim Sahin announced  that TRT and Turkey will not participate at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.

Turkey decided to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013. 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 the event in 2013 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 were not fair. The 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 19, 21, 23 May at the Wiener Stadhalle in Vienna.

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 2015 Eurovision Song Contest