Turkey – According to escXtra.com, several Turkish media outlets report that the Turkish national broadcaster TRT is considering to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013. The general director of TRT, İbrahim Şahin, went on record saying that Eurovision has become too predictable, with the winner being known months before the actual contest. Apparently TRT even considered withdrawing this year but ultimately decided against it as neighbor Azerbaijan was the host. The director called for a change in the voting system to make the contest more exciting.
Source= escXtra
The Eurovision Times 
And the last event at Olympics is over, that is modern pentathlon for women, and the last gold in London won Lithuania (YAAY second gold), silver UK and bronze Brazil (next host YAY)l! See you in Rio!! :)
But number of countries which won medals in 2008 was 86 and now it’s 85! :(
Italy is very similar with medals in 2008 (8,9,11), 8th place and 2012 (8,9,10), 9th place..
mostly coz France got more gold than Italy this time, even if we are 7 medals short from 2008 (41 medals in 2008 but 7 gold, 34 medals in 2012 but 11 golds)
Hungary made the best progress, they have 8 gold now, and in Beijing they had 3! They are top 10 with medals now! :O
true also Japan and Australia did not get as many golds as they used to!
But Japan got many bronze and silver…BIG NUMBER!
And we got gold finally!! YAY, our taekwondo player won yesterday against French girl for gold! :) :) :)
Morgan you know what is very strange and sad for me, that AUSTRIA DIDN’T GET ANY MEDAL!! :O :O :(
yeah sad… so we know which of the two were strongest back in AUstro-Hungarian Empire :p
Hehehehe, yeah, I’m sure that now Austria invests more money in sport than Hungary, not to mention than my country, Croatia and some other European countries, but that only shows money is not EVERYTHING..
All the money in Austria goes into winter sports and I am confident the country will be generously compensated in Sochi. :)
Yeah, I know that, but Austria is not only giant of winter sports, there are many other great countries in winter sports, your included, of course I can’t compare Germany with Austria, but 0 medals is really bad, in 2004 they got 7 medals (2 golds), in 2008 they got 3 medals, now 0, it’s constant downhill..but hey ho…
what does all your discussion have to do with ESC !?
I hope Turkey stays in. I may not have liked this year’s entry but they have sent some good songs in the past and I’d like that to continue. Re: The voting. I would like it to be addressed but am not sure how they can fix it and most certainly do not want 100% televoting.
Fantastic Olympic games. London 2012 delivered and I thoroughly enjoyed it all from the opening to the the closing ceremonies and everything in between. I cheered, I cringed and I cried. Well done to Team GB, a wonderful achievement and of course to Team Ireland, our best result since 1956. Roll on 2016 and Rio.
Great new online song contest taking the format of Melodifestivalen!
Lots of countries need your help!
Check us out to see how you can join in!
http://songfestivalcontest.blogspot.co.uk/
GB got 29 golds, 17 silver and 19 bronze medals making 65 medals, so happy for us!
Gosh the audacity ! Yes indeed the contest has become predictable at parts…Want to start listing the countries that contributed to that ? Turkey would be in the top 3 definately…A change in the voting system. Very well, let TRT bring a proposal forward. Oh let me guess : getting rid of the juries because they did not support turkey when they did not deserve it and going back to 100 % televoting would be a good solution for TRT I suppose…
By all means if you can’t settle anymore with the fact that you won’t be in the top 10 every single year do withdraw.
Turkey is one of those countries that were almost systematically slaughtered by the so called “expert” juries during the 100% jury era :(
I want Turkey IN! They usually stay loyal to their culture and send good entries like in 2003 , 2004 , 2008! , 2009 and 2010.
2011 and 2012 have been pretty weak though…
adjacent the neighboring game ‘Eurovision’!
Let’s hope Turkey will not turn into another Czech Republic.
How can a country that is in the contest since 1975 and stayed loyal despite some abysmal results be compared with the Czech Republic?
I hope they will decide to stay in the end.They can’t complain about the current voting system IMO.
Why can’t they complain? TRT guys are pretty serious when it comes to Eurovision and they care about music more then the result as we saw their choice when it comes to this contest.Of course they know that this system backd them more compared to previous one but that shouldn’t stop them saying the truth about sucky voting system, should it?We shouldn’t let the sleeping dogs lie just because it is better that way!
I believe that the current voting system is the best possible.Some changes could make it even better.If the TRT officials have a better voting system in mind they should let us know.
LOL Dimitris you can’t get the point..This is just a personal opinion not an oficial TRT statement…He says he wants some excitement as we all do like NOT predicting votes coming from countries!He knows he can’t change a thing that’s why he says or is believed to say ( since it wasn’t cinfirmed)” withdrawing should also be able to considered!!!”
We will be in because even though the majority of our population doesn’t give a damn about this contest ( since it lost its credibility long ago) they still like to watch it and talk about it on the big day!
That is so true. ESC lost its artistic credibility in the 80s, and not even a fantastic winning song like “Molitva” could change that fact. We would need great winning songs and live performances on a regular basis for ESC to regain the ground the contest lost 30 years ago.
But with Estonia 2010, Croatia 2012 and some others being left behind in the semis, I do not see that happening anytime soon. :(
The best thing is to stick to the contest no matter what and enjoy it as much you can! If everyone had seen this as a music festival then we wouldn’t have had any problems :)
I disagree.He actually says that the winner is known months before the contest.That’s what he he finds predictable and not the way each country awards its’ points.The winner can be predictable because we have the internet and the betting odds and yet again only when there is a strong favorite like Norway 09 or Sweden 12 we can talk about predictability.
I also don’t believe that the contest has lost its’ credibility.The fact that “Euphoria” is so successful and esc is talked about for various reasons shows that the contest is credible IMO.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.. :D :D :D :D
I also can’t inderstand why having a predictable winner is a bad thing,If there is a strong entry and if the singer delivers live then it’s natural.
Pretty sure that Turkey will stay. The predictable winner comment was out of proportion– I mean did anyone really think that Azerbaijan would have won in 2011? Not too predictable…
Or maybe they don’t have any problems as long as they or Azerbaijan are the winners… :p ?
I feel a little ambivalent about it, because on one hand, if a song is tipped as a winner weeks before the final, it is likely to be due to some obvious qualities of the song.
On the other hand the proces tends to be self-reinforcing. In the case of both Loreen and Alexander Rybak a lot of people probably became interested in “Fairytale” and “Euphoria” BECAUSE of the media hysteria surrounding them.
The ‘media hysteria” as you call it was the result of peoples’ love and massive interest for the songs and not the other way around,IMO.In 2010,on the other hand,there was a huge promotion campaign for “Drip-drop”.Did it lead to the song winning the contest?No,because the public(and the juries) never really warmed up to the song enough to make it win.
My country has been ignored by the voting patterns since for ever. Deal with it! Personally, I would go for more power to a better set of juries (less readers of glossy magazines and more musicians from different backgrounds and age groups).
I think that’s a good idea… but probably, it’s a bit difficult to set in place as every country can put together its jury on its own…
Yes, it is Max. However, the EBU should give it a try.
blah blah blah….
WHY are they complaining about the bloc voting, out of all countries??? THEY BENEFIT FROM IT EVERY YEAR! THAT’S THE REASON WHY THEY ALWAYS GET GOOD RESULTS EVEN IF THE SONG IS BAD (for example, 2012). Are they ignoring the fact that especially Azerbaijan gives them 12 points every year? Jeez.
Just found another quote on Wikapedia “There is clearly block voting between some countries. I knew Sweden was going to come first. It’s not a contest—it is a show—if the winner is obviously known all along. We should put forward the idea of withdrawal as an alternative.” Well done, everyone knew Sweden was going to win, not because of Block voting, but because it was a very good song, and everyone voted for it, so it was not block voting, unless the block was the whole of Eurovision, (excluding Italy)! So Pathetic
If Azerbaijan win ( again ) Turks will clap theyr ass fromHappines. They dont care if Azerbaijan pay for victory and good places . If Turks wants to withdraw no problem but take together and your cheater brother Azerbaijan…..
turkey is a great esc country,i like to watch their performances and listen to their songs, it is an old esc country and must stay in but i agree current system isn’t s nice.
If everyone had a tantrum and sulked when they don’t win, the Eurovision wouldn’t have lasted very long would it? Surely it’s meant to be about fun, glitter and a bit of a giggle and not earnestly trying to win to the point where you childishly refuse to participate? I fully understand the countries who have declined on financial grounds, but if Turkey just want to win and complain if they don’t, they should either enter better songs and singers or yes, just not bother! I’m from the UK and every entry since Katrina and the waves has been incredibly bad! Bloody awful to be frank, We never win, but every year we plod on, have Eurovision parties and get into the swing of it. BECAUSE IT’S FUN!
i love turkish music in general, i watch turkish pop songs on youtube and turkey was one of the countries which was making me to wait for their show, i am sad but i agree that rules are not fair, maybe they will come back one day.