TRT, the Turkish national broadcaster has published some news regarding their participation at the forthcoming 2014 Eurovision Song Contest on their website TRT Haber . In this news release the director general of the Turkish broadcaster Mr. Ibrahim Sahin has made an statament in reference to Turkey’s return and participation at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest.
It looks very unlikely that Turkey will return to the Eurovision Song Contest according to the declaration of Mr. Ibrahim Sahin, director general of TRT. Mr Sahin has declared that unless the rules and regulations regarding the voting system at the Eurovision Song Contest are changed, Turkey would not return to the contest next year. Nevertheless he said there is still a chance of a comeback as the deadline for countries to apply for participation is still opened, and if there are any changes in the rules they might decide to return. You can read the statament on TRT Haber here.
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.
Countries wishing to compete at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest can do so by sending their applications to the EBU, the deadline for submission is normally until the end of December.
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.
