Her decision caused a storm of reactions in Turkey Miss Vandi not to sing at her concert in Chesme of Izmir – which was organized by the Turkish Education Foundation (TEV) – because in its area concert was posted poster (or posters) of Kemal Ataturk.

The president of the branch of the Turkish Foundation in the region of Izmir, Gulnur Sonbayraktar, took the stage announcing that the Greek singer will not perform and that the ticket price will be returned to those of the spectators who wish it.

According to local Turkish media, the mayor of Cesme, Lal Denizli, said that Despina Vandi did not go on stage “because she wants the Turkish flag and the poster of Ataturk to come down” and continued, visibly irritated: “No force can dare to take down neither our flag nor Ataturk’s poster. He can’t even think about it. The lady must leave the borders of this city immediately».

The TEV Foundation Choir finally appeared on stage and joined the audience in singing “The Entry of Smyrna”, the anthem adopted mainly by the nationalist Kemalists, which celebrates Kemal Atatürk’s entry into Smyrna and the defeat of the Greek army in 1922 .

The singer’s answer

Despina Vandi, in her post on Instagram through the production company, expresses her respect to those who honored her with their presence in Izmir. She mentions that the responsibility for the cancellation of the concert lies entirely with TEV as it “unilaterally decided to change the character of the event as a concert and gave it political character while we had not agreed to such a thing».

“Therefore my participation in the concert was not possible” added Despina Vandi.