Turkey's Debut Triggers Greek Boycott Over Cyprus

MAY 15 1975 · 12:10

Semiha Yankı · "Seninle Bir Dakika" · Turkey · 1975 Placement: 19 · Score: 3 · Language: Turkish · Composers: Attila Özdemiroğlu, Fikret Şeneş · Venue: Stockholmsmässan · Host: Stockholm, Sweden · Type: national debut · Broadcast: color analog Yankı — 17 years old, from Istanbul — performs Turkey's first-ever Eurovision song in a modest floor-length dress, the orchestra carrying a sentimental ballad about 'one minute with you'. The Greek delegation is conspicuously absent: Greece has withdrawn in protest of Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus. Turkey finishes 19th with 3 points — second to last. The political silence is louder than the voting. Context Turkey had applied to participate for years; the 1974 military intervention in Cyprus had frozen Greek-Turkish cultural relations. Greece made explicit to the EBU that it would not share a stage with Turkey. The TRT entry was selected internally. Stockholm hosted the first 12-10-8-etc. scoring. Legacy Greece returned the following year with Mariza Koch's explicit protest song against Turkey, completing the tit-for-tat cycle. Yankı returned to Turkish television as a light-entertainment regular. Turkey remained in Eurovision for 38 consecutive years until withdrawing in 2013. Her 1975 debut is now preserved as the opening document of one of Eurovision's longest political subplots.