Despina Vandi cancels concert in Turkey because the organizers put up a poster of Kemal Ataturk and a Turkish flag

In her post on Instagram, she stated about the incident that TEV is entirely responsible 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 who in her post expressing her respect to those who honored her with their presence in Smyrna.

According to the Turkish channel NTV, after the refusal of the Greek singer, the TEV choir appeared on the stage of the concert, which would appear together with Despina Vandi, and sang the anthem of Smyrna.

Then the mayor of Izmir, Lal Denizli, took the stage and said that "Ms. Vandi will not appear because she asked for the Turkish flag and the poster of Ataturk be taken down. Don't disapprove of her, I don't think she's worth the trouble and waste of breath. We have given so many martyrs to win these lands and we are people who believe that brotherhood and friendship will win."

After expressing the hope that what happened will be a lesson for the Greek singer, Mrs. Denizli continued by saying that "no one can force us to take down the poster of Ataturk. This lady should leave here immediately, calmly and peacefully. But I hope she will never again try to take down Turkey's blood-stained flag."