TRT, the Turkish national broadcaster has confirmed  that Turkey will not return to the Eurovision Song  Contest in Stockholm next year. The country will be absent from the contest for a fourth year in a row.

TRT has confirmed its non participation at the forthcoming 2016 Eurovision Song Contest via Teletext earlier today, stating that the country will not return to the contest next year due to no improvement in the voting system in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The TRT teletext communique on Turkey’s Eurovision participation in 2016.

Thus Turkey joins Monaco, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Andorra in the list of countries that will not compete at the forthcoming 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

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.

Turkey has been absent from the event for 3 years already; 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Turkey debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975 and has won the event once in 2003 with Sertab Erener‘s Every that I can. The country successfully hosted the competition in Istanbul in 2004.

The last time Turkey competed at the Eurovision Song Contest was in 2012 in Baku when Can Bonomo represented the nation with Love me back placing 7th in the grand final.

The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 10, 12 and 14 of May at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

Esctoday would like to thank  Mr.Umut Certel,  Mr. Safak Dogan and Ms.Esen Dönmezer  for the translation of the teletext text from Turkish- English.

Stay tuned to ESCToday for the latest news on Turkey and the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.