Turkey has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 34 times since its debut in 1975. The Turkish participating broadcaster in the contest is Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu (TRT). Turkey won the contest once in 2003, and hosted the 2004 contest in Istanbul. Since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Turkey has only failed to qualify for the final once, in 2011.

Turkey finished last on its debut at the contest in 1975, and went on to finish last with nul points in 1983 and 1987. They reached the top ten for the first time in 1986. "Dinle" performed by Şebnem Paker achieved the country's first top five result in 1997, finishing third. The country went on to achieve five more top five placements after the introduction of the free language rule and televoting, with "Everyway That I Can" by Sertab Erener giving Turkey its first victory in 2003. Turkey's other top five results are "For Real" by Athena (2004), "Shake It Up Şekerim" by Kenan Doğulu (2007), "Düm Tek Tek" by Hadise (2009), who all finished fourth, and "We Could Be the Same" by Manga (2010), who finished second.

TRT announced in December 2012 that it would not participate in the 2013 contest, citing dissatisfaction with the rules of the competition. 2013 was the first time since 1979 that there was no television broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest on TRT. The country has not returned to the contest since.

Türkiye Radyoları, the national radio broadcasting service of Turkey, was one of the founding members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 1950 along with other twenty-two broadcasting organisations; after beginning regular television broadcasts in December 1971, it would renew its EBU membership on 26 August 1972 fold as Türkiye Radyo ve Televizyon Kurumu (TRT). Its membership in the EBU is possible since Turkey is within the European Broadcasting Area and is a member of the Council of Europe.

As a full member of the EBU, TRT is eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. It had participated in the contest representing Turkey since its 20th edition in 1975 until the 57th edition in 2012. TRT televised the contest between 1973 and 2012, even during the years in which it did not enter the competition.

Turkey made its debut at the 1975 contest in Stockholm. Greece did not take part in the contest for "unknown reasons" according to the EBU, but it was later revealed that the withdrawal was in protest of Turkey's debut and their invasion of Cyprus in 1974. TRT organized a national final to select the first ever Turkish entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest. The final took place on 9 February 1975 in the studios of TRT and was hosted by Bülend Özveren. 106 songs were submitted for the national final. The winning song, "Seninle Bir Dakika" ("A minute with you") by Semiha Yankı, was picked by averaging the ranks from the professional jury and people's jury. At the close of voting during the contest, the song received only three points from Monaco and placed last.

In 1976, Greece's entry to the contest aroused controversy due to its subject matter being the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Turkey withdrew from the contest to protest the political background of Greece's entry, called "Panagia mou, panagia mou." Turkey televised the final on 3 April 1976 but censored the Greek entrant's performance. They played a nationalist Turkish song titled "Memleketim" ("My motherland", the Turkish cover of the Yiddish folk song "Rabbi Elimelekh"), which was one of the symbols of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in Turkey.

Turkey did not take part in the contest again until 1978, placing 18th with the song "Sevince" performed by Nazar and Nilüfer.