Turkish broadcaster TRT has told the EBU that they definitely have decided not to return to the Eurovision Song Contest next year. The Turkish broadcaster has released a statement regarding the next contest in Copenhagen.
The head of TRT, İbrahim Şahin, recently held a meeting with one of the heads of the EBU in İstanbul. After the meeting İbrahim Şahin released a statement about the latest situation regarding to the contest: “Although we were having good results at the contest, we previously signaled that we’re not coming back in 2014 like in 2013; as previous system changes weren’t asked for our votes. Apart from these issues we are not taken into the elections for the board of management though we are one of the strongest members in EBU. Today Mr. Philippot told us their apologises about both situations.”
İbrahim Şahin clarified the future releations between EBU and TRT, “From now on both TRT and EBU will take more initiative about the releations as EBU showed us their enthusiasm today. There are more than 300 international employees in EBU and only one of them is Turk. We are one of the bigger countries in the union so EBU will have less issues like these (participation in the contest, elections and etc) if there are more Turkish employee to contact about us in the future”.
The Turkish broadcaster decided to withdraw from last year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, citing the unfair 50/50 voting system and Big 5 issue.