The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) says that Turkey will again not participate in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, citing the 2014 winner, Conchita Wurst as its reason.

Turkey, which hasn’t participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since 2012 when there were disagreements over the voting system, said that the likes of Conchita (pictured above) were inappropriate for audiences of the show.

According to Pink News, Ibrahim Eren, the General Manager of TRT, said:  “We are not thinking about taking part at the moment.

“We have reasons like the voting system. As a public broadcaster, we also cannot broadcast live at 9pm – when children are still awake – someone like the bearded Austrian who wore a skirt, do not believe in genders and says that he is both a man and a woman.”

“There is some kind of confusion of mentality here… once this is corrected we will return to Eurovision.”

Turkey also refused to broadcast the Eurovision after Finland’s 2013 entry, Krista Siegfrids kissed a female backing dancer on stage as an equal marriage protest.

“I have told the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on the Eurovision issue that they deviated from their values,” Eru added. “As a result, other countries also left Eurovision. There is a mental chaos at the EBU because of its executives. If they can fix it, we can join Eurovision again.”

At the time of Wurst’s victory for Austria in 2014, with the song Rise Like a Phoenix, Volkan Bozkir, then chairman of Turkey’s foreign affairs committee said: “thank God we no longer participate in Eurovision“.

Homosexuality is legal in Turkey, but it is not widely accepted, and Pride marches have been repeatedly banned in recent years.

In July, Turkish riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets against LGBTI activists who had assembled in Istanbul for a banned Pride march.