Any hopes of seeing Turkey at Eurovision 2014 in Copenhagen should be dashed now, according to the Turkish broadcaster TRT.

TRT’s director general, Ibrahim Sahin, announced on Saturday that Turkey will not return to the Eurovision Song Contest because of the current voting rules, which he says are “unfair”. And the decision is unlikely to be reversed unless there are changes to the current voting system from the EBU, which consists of 50% televoting and 50% jury voting.

Another reason behind Turkey’s unlikely return next year is that Sahin is also unsatisfied with the Big 5 rule. France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom are the biggest contributors to the EBU, which means all 5 countries gain direct qualification to the final. As we’ve discussed before, that gives the impression that money matters more than effort at ESC.

Turkey made their Eurovision debut back in 1975 and their last appearance was in 2012 with Can Bonomo’s “Love Me Back”. They have won the Eurovision Song Contest once with Sertab Erener’s “Everyway That I Can” in 2003 and hosted the 2004 contest in Istanbul.

For those who are fluent in Turkish, you can read the full statement here.

Do you agree with TRT’s decision? Is the voting system fair enough? Should the EBU scrap the Big 5 rule?

Anthony Ko contributed this report from the U.K. Follow him on Twitter at @bjorneo. You can also keep up-to-date with the latest Eurovision news and gossip by liking our Facebook page.

Photo: Eurovision.tv (EBU)

24 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Peter James
Peter James
10 years ago

I totally agree! Money should not be the over riding factor here.
It is a song contest and effort should always be rewarded rather than the size of one’s pockets.
I believe in any country contributing as little or a much as they wish to the EBU however, this should never gain anyone direct qualification to the final.
Imagine for instance, UK’s abysmal artists and songs gaining direct final entry just because of bribe money!

Change the rules or I and many others, will switch off!!

Taylor Raufflerr
Taylor Raufflerr
10 years ago

This is a song contest not a school education so public votes should be counted only cause we need the audiences participation not the jury anymore. Things change in the world and majority thinks that public votes will make it much more fair and fun.

Taylor Raufflerr
Taylor Raufflerr
10 years ago

Turkey’s decision has nothing to do with the gov’s choice about sexuality cause they had the biggest gay parade in Istanbul this year and I was there! They want to be part of it but have EBU change their policies about voting system cause they keep changing it all the time but be always fair to 5 countries no matter what.

Taylor Raufflerr
Taylor Raufflerr
10 years ago

Turkey should be back cause it is a classic for ESC! And they were in top 10 in all these years since 2000 even with unfair voting system I think ESC will lose more countries in near future with the unfair voting system and financial problems. Even Bosnia didn’t participate as well as Portugal

Gokhan
10 years ago

Small country’s don’t want turkey in Eurovision because they know the turkey better than them so without turkey Eurovision will be boring

Raul
Raul
10 years ago

They don’t wannt to go cause eurovision as a gay target on it and they are getting findamentalist islamics. This is just a sign of it. Europe is blind: while the meadle esta and the south mediterranean goes religious fanatics, we don’t preserve our way of livving with freedom, iguallity and democracy

paco
10 years ago

Querida Diane con un pensamiento como el que tu tienes,realmente lo que haces es engañar y engañarte y manipular que triste.Por lo menos con mas dinero hay un mejor esc pero no manipulamos votos y vivimos de los vecinos.

Diane
Diane
10 years ago

Money really matters than effort?
At least Turkey has votes every year, and that means we are going to Baku again in 2015. Yeah, do we have to watch dull presenters and over nationalistic postcards again?

D
D
10 years ago

To be honest, I haven’t liked any songs from Turkey. The song I liked most is ‘Everyway That I Can’ even though t.A.T.u from Russia were the deserving winners that year, and I didn’t even really like Sertab that much. It annoyed me how Turkey qualified basically every contest, especially in 2012 with one of my least favourite songs from that contest. This doesn’t bother me that much, but then again, Turkey is a very important part of Eurovision and another contest without them would make things feel empty.

Pixie
Pixie
10 years ago

Oh, Azerbaijan, please do the same!

MoOn-FLoWeR
10 years ago

TURKEY&AZERBAIJAN <3 🙂

Charles
Charles
10 years ago

Turkey out of the competition out for a second year: sounds great to me from the point of view of someone who just never likes their choices as entries especially when they go ethnic crap. The justifications against the voting system just showcase a complete inferiority complex on their part, meaning that they have no faith whatsoeever in their musicality to impress juries, they only know that any piece of crap they send will impress the common ordinary televoter who goes along with anything. The Big5 argument showcases also a lot of hypocrisy considering that never has Turkey been afected… Read more »

AzeBoy
AzeBoy
10 years ago

Of course it would be nice to see them in Copenhagen, but if they dont wants it then alright! Personally I dont really want jury voting to be out of ESC! 50/50 is good, everything’s balanced! and I dont care if is there Big 5 or no! By the way only 2 (or 3) of them sends sth good to ESC every year!

about Turkish entries: I liked their 2007 2008 2009 2010 entries! 2011 was too cliche and boring! 2012 was just HORROR, imo!

Hope to see u in ESC in near future, Turkey! 🙂

AlvaRito_Spain
AlvaRito_Spain
10 years ago

the Turks eurofans must hate the group of people that decides whether to participate or not. Sure the Turks would participate and would leave aside that nonsense. The countries that are removed because they think there are injustices, is not known as eurovision.
If every country that saw something unfair to withdraw from the contest, not quedarian more than 10 countries participating.

Julian
Julian
10 years ago

The more the jury votes will be kept the more they will develop cooperatives of swap votes and bribe as it was before. Not missing Ireland winning 3 times in a row. Even with diaspora and neighbouring problems, public vote is still miles away more fair. When Turkey won back in 2003 they got only 2 points more than Belgium and 3 points more than Russia. Now the winner is known months ahead.
As to that jury vote brings more quality music they are actually killing everything that’s new and different from their preconceptions of music.

Fikri
Fikri
10 years ago

it’s official. azerbaijan in top 5 for eternity!

Marion
Marion
10 years ago

Eurovision without Turkey is not the same !!! : (

Mike
Mike
10 years ago

Yes Turkey! Please stay away from Eurovision for ever!

Padraig Muldoon
Admin
10 years ago

They’re nothing but sore losers! Turkey have taken part in many contests with the big 4/5 and even more with the juries and no complaint until last year. But of course Turkey did disproportionally better in the pure televote era. So now that they see their advantage is slipping they claim “unfairness”.How exactly is the system unfair, all it means is that songs do well based on quality rather than on what country has the most text-happy diaspora. It’s time for Turkey to get over themselves. At the end of the day it’s only a bit of fun.

Daniel
Daniel
10 years ago

Sad but understandable. Juries take away the competition and the fun. Why should there be a pan-European contest if the winners are determined by some sort of covert taste-police.

Kristín
Kristín
10 years ago

🙁

David Thielen
10 years ago

You mean between Azerbaijan buying votes, draw order determining the televote, juries not following the EBU requirements, and San Marino’s vote equaling Russia’s, Turkey thinks the voting is unfair? How on earth did they come to that conclusion?

Katie Wilson
Editor
10 years ago

Waaah! 🙁 No Turkey!

paco
10 years ago

Señores de TRT me parece a mi que sois muy hipocricas criticando el sitema de votacion actual,cuando a ustedes les ivan bien con el voto antiguo nunca se pronuciaron.Ahora critican a los cinco grandes,pues hagan ustedes lo mismo que ellos,quiero decir pongan el mismo dinero que los cinco grandes y tenga loas mismos previlegios que estos paises que ustedes critican para estar en igualdad de condiciones.Cuanta prepotencia de todas formas les aconsejo que primero limpie la imajen de su pais,que no esta el horno para bollos.