Despina Vandi cancels Turkey concert over flag and Ataturk portrait

Greek pop star Despina Vandi refused to perform on a stage in Turkey adorned with its flag and portrait of the country’s founding father, prompting the local mayor to ask her to leave her town, according to Turkish media reports.

The 54-year-old singer was due to perform at a charity concert in Cesme, a Turkish resort town west of Izmir late on Wednesday. She refused to make an appearance after authorities declined her request that the flag and poster of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk be removed, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The incident comes at a time when the leaders of Turkey and Greece are trying to improve their rocky relations.

In an Instagram post, Vandi expressed her respect to the audience who “honored me with their presence at my concert.” But she criticized the organizers, the Turkish Education Foundation, for changing the event from a concert into “a prohibited and non-agreed political connotation.”

“My participation in the said event is not possible,” she wrote.

The audience which had filled Cesme’s open-air amphitheater, expressed their disappointment with boos when the reason for her decision not to appear was announced, according to Sozcu newspaper.

“There is no power that can make us bring down our flag or Ataturk’s poster,” Anadolu quoted Cesme’s mayor, Lal Denizli, as telling the crowd. “Do not boo her; I don’t think it is worth tiring yourselves and wasting your breath.”

She continued: “This lady should leave this [town’s] limits immediately.”

Neighbors Turkey and Greece have been at odds for decades over a series of issues, including territorial claims, and have come to the brink of war three times in the last half-century.

Leaders of the two countries have met several times in the past year in a bid to strengthen a process aimed at normalizing ties.

Sozcu newspaper said many of the spectators stayed to watch the performance of a choir that was scheduled to accompany the Greek star, and joined the choir in singing a patriotic Turkish anthem.