Stockholm 2016

TRT confirm no return for Turkey in 2016

TRT have this evening confirmed that Turkey will not be returning to the Eurovision Song Contest next year.
Whilst an official announcement is yet to be published on the broadcaster’s website, the news was announced on TRT’s teletext service tonight.

Confirmation from TRT via Teletext. © escXtra
Confirmation from TRT via Teletext. © escXtra
Although reports in recent months suggested the Turkish broadcaster had a change of heart and were planning a return to the contest in 2016, TRT have made it clear that significant changes to the contest had not been made by the EBU.
After announcing their initial exit from the competition three years ago, TRT made it clear that they were unhappy with the contest’s current rules – one of those being the direct qualification of the ‘big 5’ consisting of France, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy & Germany who are currently rewarded with a guaranteed place in the grand final due to their financial contributions.
It was also recently rumoured that TRT had requested an extension to next year’s participation deadline whilst they re-evaluated their decision.  The EBU later confirmed to one of our editiors that this was not the case, revealing they had not had any communication with the Turkish broadcaster at all.

2 Comments

  1. I\’m not surprised but I do think it might be a bit of a shame, particularly if there are plenty of countries coming back in in 2016.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button