The news that Tarkan will represent Turkey at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo has been strongly denied by his manager, Ulgar Atash. Tarkan yesterday told Sabah that a pre-agreement and musical arrangement had been agreed with TRT. The news was reported in several Turkish newspapers yesterday as well as the official Eurovision Song Contest website.
In a statement to the Azeri news agency APA minutes ago, “The reports that Tarkan will represent Turkey in Eurovision-2010 are not true…TRT has not offered it to Tarkan this year. Tarkan received proposals on participation in the Contest in the previous years, but he rejected them. If we receive such a proposal this year, we will reject. Tarkan is not going to participate in this contest in the coming years,”. No Turkish media have yet published any contradictary news to yesterday's reports.
Last year, Hadise mentioned that she had accepted the chance to represent Turkey but retracted the comments on orders of TRT. Her participation was later confirmed at an official press conference. Whilst Tarkan's manager has issued a denial today, it may be to protect the negotiations with TRT which Tarkan yesterday told Sabah are still ongoing.
TRT have as yet made no comment and are unlikely to do so until they hold an official press conference later this year to confirm their choice of artist to represent Turkey at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. Based on previous form, TRT are likely to make no official comment until after all negotiations are concluded and contracts have been signed. They have also rebuked signers for talking to the media before any official press conference and asked for retractions of any comments to the media. This may turn out to be the reason for Mr. Atash's comments today.
