Greek authorities have barred Turkish-Cypriot pop singer Işın Karaca from entering the country at Athens International Airport, declaring her persona non grata nearly two years after she performed a Turkish nationalist anthem at a concert in northern Greece.
Ms. Karaca confirmed her deportation in a social media video, linking the entry ban directly to a summer 2024 concert she headlined in Komotini, in the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region.
At that event, organized by the Minority Scientists Association, Ms. Karaca performed the "Izmir March" — a Turkish nationalist anthem that carries deeply painful historical associations for Greeks — and made remarks from the stage that drew immediate condemnation from local officials.
The controversy deepened when it emerged that regional authorities had unknowingly subsidized the festival with a 2,000-euro public grant.
Friday's deportation formalizes the Greek state's position on the incident, closing a chapter that had generated significant political and cultural fallout in the region.
The case touches on sensitive fault lines in northern Greece, where a Muslim minority community and questions of ethnic and national identity have historically complicated relations with Ankara.
The Izmir March references the 1922 destruction of Smyrna — known in Turkish as İzmir — an event Greeks associate with the catastrophic end of the Greco-Turkish War and the expulsion of Greek populations from Asia Minor.
Ms. Karaca did not indicate whether she intends to challenge the persona non grata designation through legal channels.