Despina Vandi, who in the last 24 hours has received severe criticism on social media from both her organizers, spoke about what happened in Izmir and resulted in her canceling her concert in Cesme, as a poster of Kemal Ataturk was displayed on the stage. concert as well as by the Turkish media.

“I would never sing in front of a picture of the slaughterer of the Greeks. I asked for his photo to be removed and for a Greek flag to be placed next to the Turkish one” said the singer in her new statements at the Open.

The well-known singer Despina Vandi and her colleagues spent two hours in consultation with the organizers of the concert and with the officials of the Turkish Education Foundation in order to take down the poster of Kemal Atatürk, discussions which ended up being fruitless. 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 .

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

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