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10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
According to the legend, 40 raiders within the Ottoman army were returning to the Ottomans’ Asian stronghold in Bursa after conquering parts of Thrace. Two soldiers among them started to wrestle in Samona, now in Greece, but could not beat each other. They organized a rematch near Edirne on the way back, but both of them died of exhaustion after wrestling from morning till midnight, failing to break a draw.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
4) FROM CAMELS TO MONEY: The winner of each year’s competition wins the title of başpehlivan (“wrestler-in-chief”). Winning this title three times in a row brings the additional award of the golden belt. Victorious wrestlers get prize money in the modern day competition. During the Ottoman times, however, they were also awarded with thoroughbred horses, camels and bulls.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
Doğan News Agency photos in this collection, shot this month, show wrestlers preparing for the Kırkpınar competition with weeks-long training camps in Ankara’s Kızılcahamam, Kocaeli’s Karamürsel and Antalya’s Demre.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
1) OLDEST SPORTS COMPETITION: This year’s competition is promoted as the 654th of its kind, tracing back the start of the Kırkpınar to 1361. Kırkpınar Oil wrestling was recognized as an “intangible heritage event” by UNESCO in 2010. According to a daily Hürriyet report in 2001, it is also recognized as the oldest sports competition by Guinness World Records in 2001. The exact date of its beginning is not clear though, due to the legendary nature of the early days of this competition.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
Since the foundation of modern Turkey, Ahmet Taşçı from the Karamürsel district’s Kocaeli province, remains as one of the best wrestlers in recent memory. He has been the wrestler-in-chief from 1990 to 1997. Taşçı, now 57 years old, will compete again this year after preparing by carrying 300-kg truck tires.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
10) OUTPLAYING THE OPPONENT: Due to the importance of the kıspet, many “games” to outplay the opponent are involved. Such tactics involving the kıspet, such as the “wolf trap,” are banned. There are also popular and legitimate moves that do not involve the kıspet, such as the “boyunduruk,” in which a wrestler takes the head and one arm of the opponent to put him on the ground in a knock-out position.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
During the peşrev, each wrestler takes three steps forwards and then behind, before putting their left knee on the ground and touching their own knee, lips and foreheads with their right hands three times, as a band of 20 drums and 20 zurnas plays music. Then, they suddenly jump ahead, shouting “Hayda bre pehlivan!” (Come on, wrestler!) and begin to wrestle.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
3) MODERN TIMES: After the Ottomans lost Samona to Greece during the Balkan Wars in the early 20th century and during the turmoil of World War I, the Kırkpınar oil wrestling competitions were interrupted or moved to other places in Turkish Thrace. A year after the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the Director of National Education Ministry in Edirne, Habib Sevük, revitalized the competition, which has been continuously organized in Edirne since then.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
6) SIMPLE RULES TO FOLLOW: There are various ways of knocking out an opponent. If his back touches the ground, if he sits, if he calls for an end to the match, if his trousers are removed or torn down, his opponent win. Another way to win is to carry the opponent for three steps with his feet not touching the ground. Offensive words or gestures targeting the opponent, the referee or spectators are subject to disciplinary action. Arguing with the opponent during the match, using banned techniques, wrestling in an unserious manner or fixing a match are all punishable. Some 90 field and tower referees will be in charge this year.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
Knowing that oil brings about a defensive advantage to himself, a wrestler can use the oil server to lubricate his body again. The quality of oil is considered important. It should be olive oil, first of all. Traditionally, wrestlers start to oil the left side of their bodies with their right hands and then vice versa.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
9) MOST IMPORTANT OBJECT: Doubtlessly, the most important object of Turkish oil wrestling is the kıspet, the oily, tight trouser worn by a wrestler. If a wrestler wants to win the match, he should protect his own kıspet, which is made of leather, while successfully attacking the opponent’s. After all, it is the only thing that an oil wrestler can take a hold on.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
8) RITUAL START OF A MATCH: As the cazgır announces the match, the two wrestlers first take oil and water from a nearby pot and apply it on their bodies. Then they come to the grass, called the “er meydanı” (the field of the man), and engages in the “peşrev,” the ritual start of a match.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
7) KEY OFFICIALS - THE AĞA: The person who bought the prestigious title of Kırkpınar Ağası (Lord of Kırkpınar) through an auction organizes the event. Traditionally, he sends invitations to wrestlers, accompanied by candles with a red bottom, each year 20-25 days before the ancient spring festival of Hıdrellez on May 6. A special marketplace is formed a week before the competition starts.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
Over 2,000 wrestlers face each other at the 654th Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling Championship in Turkey’s Thracian province of Edirne on 24-26 July. As a record number of spectators are expected, we summarize the 10 facts you should know about the historic competition.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
2) THE ORIGIN MYTH: The most famous origin myth for the Kırkpınar, which is cited on the Edirne Governorate’s website, refers to the prospective Ottoman Empire’s first military campaigns in Europe during the reign of Orhan Bey (1326-1362), who was the son of the state’s founder, Osman I.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
Years after the incident, their comrades discovered during another military campaign that spring water had started to gurgle near where the two persistent wrestlers were buried. They decided to call the place “kırk” (40 in Turkish) – “pınar” (spring in Turkish).
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
5) BEST OIL WRESTLERS IN HISTORY: One of the best Kırkpınar wrestlers during the Ottoman era was Aliço the Bald, who defended his wrestler-in-chief title for 26 years in a row, a record that has yet to be broken. Aliço, also known as the Brutal, died in 1922, soon before the Republic institutionalized the organization.
10 facts to know about Turkey’s Kırkpınar oil wrestling
CAZGIR: When wrestling begins, oil servers and water sellers start to patrol the grassland to serve sportsmen and spectators. Possibly the most important figures, “cazgırs” announce each match and praise each wrestler with rhyming words and prayers. Meanwhile, the ağa, wearing traditional Rumelia Turkish clothes, watches the games with his guests. Ten cazgırs will be on duty this year.
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