Turkish national broadcaster TRT appears to have confirmed the Eurasian country will return to Eurovision next year after three years of non-participation.
The previous management of the broadcaster who had publically criticised the competition’s rules are no longer controllers of TRT. The new head of the broadcaster, Senol Gökan, has now announced that Turkey intends to return to the competition next year.
Gökan has said that “the Eurovision Song Contest is a great resource” but that Turkey’s goal should not be to win the contest as much as possible. The broadcaster’s previous management had criticised the jury procedures as well as the Big 5 rule which Gökan now says the EBU has “taken on board”.
If Turkey returns next year, and the planned returns of Croatia and Bulgaria still happen, the Eurovision family may find its largest gathering yet in 2016!
Currently, the inactive members of the Eurovision family are Andorra (since 2010), Bosnia and Herzegovina (since 2013), Bulgaria (since 2014), Croatia (since 2014), Luxembourg (since 1994), Monaco (since 2007), Morocco (since 1981), Slovakia (since 2013), Turkey (since 2013) and Ukraine (since 2015).
Source: NTV
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