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The Sportification and Heritagisation of Traditional Turkish Oil Wrestling

2012; Routledge; Volume: 29; Issue: 15 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09523367.2012.721597

1743-9035

Birgit Krawietz,

Martial Arts: Techniques, Psychology, and Education

Abstract The Kirkpinar oil wrestling festival in the Turkish town of Edirne on the European side of the country close to the Greek and Bulgarian borders has been inscribed in 2010 in the ‘Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ of the UNESCO. Although this physical activity has originally a Greek-Byzantine tradition, the annual event is crowned by the victorious emergence of the so-called ‘Champion of Turkey’. In the summer of 2012, the athletic meeting of some 1500 wrestlers took place supposedly for the 651th time. Hence it is said to be the oldest continuously practised sports contest on earth, thereby dwarfing the Olympic Games. However, in the course of especially its younger history throughout the long twentieth century, there are various changes in this for many reasons (re-)invented tradition. Based on field research and especially a range of Turkish sources, this article traces oil wrestling as an imperial Ottoman practice and depicts its embeddedness in wrestling lodges and palaces; it highlights the role of modern show wrestling, that even staged ‘Terrible Turks’, and problematises the Republican process of Turkification, the sports-oriented corset of the modern Turkish Wrestling Federation and the system logic of heritagisation. Keywords: wrestlingheritagisationtourismOttoman EmpireBalkansTurkey Notes 1. This lasts for eight months according to http://www.allaboutturkey.com/yagligures.htm (accessed April 28, 2012). 2. Başaran and Gürcüm, ‘The Yağlı Güreş Tradition in Kırkpınar and the Last Maker of Kıspet-Making’, 104. 3. On this symbol and the official funding myth of this wrestling tournament, see Krawietz, ‘Big Bodies That Matter’, 201–3. My personal findings are related to field research visits to Turkey (Edirne, Istanbul and Ankara) that started in 2009 and 2010 in the framework of the joint Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO)-project on ‘A Contest Between Worlds of Sport: Competing Patterns of Order and Forms of Representation in Body Cultures in Africa and Asia’. I thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the generous funding of the project at that time as well as the ZMO (Berlin) that is hosting it through 2014. I am further indebted to the Berlin doctoral student Yetiş Akdemir for his erudite help. 4. Hershiser, Blood Honor and Money, 145. 5. Karakucak, literally Black Embrace Wrestling; oil wrestling and the names of more regional or local styles are mentioned in Başaran and Gürcüm, ‘Last Maker’, 104. 6. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi (s.d., after 1969), 209. Especially in Anatolia, the ancient cities of Ephesus, Aphrodisias and Laodikeia had stadia, baths and training facilities. Turkish sources most often admit that oil wrestling had been invented by the ancient Greeks and Byzantines. 7. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=147689&bolum= 132 (accessed April 1, 2012). 8. Gumbrecht, Lob des Sports, from the American, 56–7. 9. Güven, Türklerde Spor Kültürü, 4. Ata means ‘father’, such as in Mustafa Kemal's honorary title Atatürk, ‘Father of the Turks’. 10. Quataert, Ottoman Empire, 76. 11. Quataert, Ottoman Empire, 75. 12. Petrov, ‘‘Sultan werden’’, 221–36. 13. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 199. 14. Laqueur, Stellung des türkischen Ringkampfes, 61; cf. 62; according to Laqueur, too much information has irretrievably been lost for a diligent historical description of oil wrestling, because the oral tradition was not written down before the tremendous cultural change set in that is related to the transition of the Ottoman monarchy to the Turkic Republic and to the war decade 1912–1922, 98. 15. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 198. Cirit – in some texts rendered as ‘Jareed’ – is an old game of lance throwing on horses. 16. Laqueur, Stellung des türkischen Ringkampfes, 72. 17. Canard, ‘La lutte chez les Arabes’, 132–4, 144, 185–9. 18. Arıbal, Çolak Molla, 7. 19. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 199. 20. Chehabi, ‘The Juggernaut of Globalization’, 276, quoted in Krawietz, ‘Martial Arts Iranian Style’. That suggests a sort of family resemblance. 21. A negative example of the latter is Caliskan et al., ‘Philosophy of Some Turkish Traditional Sports’, 710–21, whose English is also confusing. 22. An example of such a hyper-celebratory tone is Güven, Türklerde Spor Kültürü, although publications of people like Atıf Kahraman are really useful. 23. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 204. 24. Laqueur, Stellung des türkischen Ringkampfes, 10. 25. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 205, with locations in Istanbul where such events took place. 26. Laqueur, Stellung des türkischen Ringkampfes, 9. 27. Laqueur, Stellung des türkischen Ringkampfes, 12. 28. Özcan, ‘Güreş’, 317. 29. Laqueur, Stellung des türkischen Ringkampfes, 60, 85–6. 30. Özcan, ‘Güreş’, 319. 31. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 204. 32. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 205. 33. Goodwin, The Janissaries. 34. Toksöz, ‘Historical Process’, 50–51. 35. Özcan, ‘Güreş’, 318. These are all waterfront palaces on the Bosporus in Istanbul. 36. Coşkun, ‘Efsane pehlivanlar/Legendary Pehlivans’, 370. 37. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 220. 38. Kent, A Pictorial History of Wrestling, 62, 159, 191–2, 232, 252–3. 39. Kent, A Pictorial History of Wrestling, 73. 40. Laqueur, Stellung des türkischen Ringkampfes, 76. 41. Kent, Pictorial History of Wrestling, 159. 42. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 220. 43. Başaran and Gürcüm, ‘Last Master’, 108. His enemy was a Frenchman named Paul Pons. 44. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 205. 45. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 206. 46. Özcan, ‘Güreş’, 318. 47. Özcan, ‘Güreş’, 319–20. 48. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 207. 49. Laqueur, Stellung des türkischen Ringkampfes, 7. 50. http://www.tgf.gov.tr/article.php?category_id=195&article_id=3152 (accessed April 28, 2012). 51. Özcan, ‘Güreş’, 320. 52. Turkish wrestlers have officially participated in the Olympic Games since Paris 1924, http://www.tgf.gov.tr/article.php?category_id=195&article_id=3152 (accessed April 28, 2012). 53. Until today, the complementary performance in both pathways is a familiar feature. Recep Kara, for instance, winner of the 2004, 2007 and 2008 Kirkpinar tournament, is primarily a successful Greco-Roman wrestler, but one of those who also show up for important oil wrestling events in Turkey. 54. http://www.guresdosyasi.com (accessed April 28, 2012). 55. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 207. 56. http://www.tgf.gov.tr/article.php?category_id=232&article_id=3655 (accessed April 28, 2012). 57. Interview with Alper Bey during the festival week of 2008. 58. Çevik, ‘Pehlivan’, 91. 59. Çevik, ‘Pehlivan’, 108. 60. Çevik, ‘Pehlivan’, 106. 61. Başaran and Gürcüm, ‘Last Master’, 108. 62. Başaran and Gürcüm, ‘Last Master’, 104. Some other types are presented in Güven, Türklerde Spor Kültürü, 5, 12–8. 63. Çevik, ‘Pehlivan’, 105. Prior to this, there were only nine categories. 64. ‘Little One (8–9 years), Little Two, Little Three, Encouraging (14–15), Very Windy (15–19), Deck Small (17–18, max 70 kg), Deck Middle (max 80 kg.), Deck Big (90 kg. max, 20–21), Small Middle Small, Small Middle Big, Middle Big, Steerage, Head’, Çevik, ‘Pehlivan’, 109. Back in the 1960s, Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 209, still claims: ‘In oil wrestling there is no selection according to kilograms.’ Under the terms of this older concept, anybody could emerge as a baş wrestler; however, a combination of age, weight, skills and mastery are taken together, cf. Krawietz, ‘Big Bodies That Matter’, 213. 65. Hilmi Biç, Türk güreşi: Yağlı güreş, 8. 66. Arıbal, Çolak Molla, 10. 67. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 215. 68. Coşkun, ‘Er Meydanı – Efsane Pehlivanlar’, 315. 69. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 213. On pre-arena settings, Tadeusz Kowalski, ‘Ringkämpfe bei den Balkantürken’, 164–5. 70. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 219. 71. Özcan, ‘Güreş’, 319. 72. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 200, 215. 73. http://www.allaboutturkey.com/yagligures.htm (accessed April 28, 2012). The wrestler Hüseyin Çokal, for instance, who is from Denizli and became the winner in Kirikpinar in the years 1982–1984, still keeps his Golden Belt at home; he quit immediately after this triumph and is meanwhile involved in Kirkpinar as a member of the Turkish wrestling foundation, Interview with Çokal, July 2, 2008. 74. Yıldız, Türk spor tarihi, 202–3. 75. The spectrum of permissible techniques was strongly reduced because of the strict rules of the wrestling federation laws, Interview with İlhan Toksöz, July, 2008. 76. According to Coşkun, ‘Heroes’ Arena’, 327, ‘each referee is responsible for watching three pehlivans couple at most’. 77. Interview with Hilmi Tırpan, an Edirne oil wrestling aficionado, August 29, 2008. 78. Interview with Hüseyin Çokal, July 2, 2008 in Edirne. 79. Stokvis, ‘The International and National Expansion of Sports’, 14. 80. Nevertheless, there are some, often short-lived initiatives in the West to somehow replicate oil wrestling events. 81. Petrov, ‘‘Sultan werden’’, 221–36; Kowalski, ‘Ringkämpfe bei den Balkantürken’, 163–75. 82. Toksöz, ‘Historical Process’, 61. 83. Kalaycı Durdu, ‘Cazgır’, 202. 84. Kalaycı Durdu, ‘Cazgır’, 202. 85. Just to mention how the flag was ecstatically addressed by microphone in 2010: ‘We have been born in your shadow. – We have read your legend. – We will continue to write your legend. – We owe this to our martyrs, who did this for our nation. – Preserve our noble state and our nation from evil and enmity. – Our dear government, our beloved nation – do not let our nation be without wrestlers – do not let our nation be without heroes – do not let the sky of our fatherland be without a flag. – This flag will never go down’, quoted in Krawietz, ‘Big Bodies That Matter’, 207–8. 86. Ashworth et al., Pluralising Pasts, 97. 87. Scholze, ‘Arrested Heritage’, 217. 88. Graham, ‘Heritage as Knowledge’, 1005; Ashworth et al., Pluralising Pasts, 1, 38. 89. http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?s=films_details&id_page=33&id_film=16 86 (accessed May 3, 2012). 90. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_Sites_in_Turkey (accessed May 3, 2012). 91. Scholze, ‘Arrested Heritage’, 218. The mere official application already has this effect, as Scholze, ‘Arrested Heritage’, 229, mentions with regard to European acquisition of old houses in Agadez, Niger. 92. Günay, ‘Sunuş/Introduction’, 7. This ‘prestige volume’ with lavish pictures was prepared by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism on the occasion of the allegedly 650th festival in 2011. It is bilingual in Turkish and English, although the latter has rather obviously not been finally cross-checked by a native speaker. 93. On the issue of the original Kirkpinar not being located in Edirne, see Toksöz, ‘Historical Process’, 64–5. 94. Graham, ‘Heritage as Knowledge’, 1004. 95. Ashworth et al., Pluralising Pasts, 2. 96. Ashworth et al., Pluralising Pasts, 1, 4. 97. Graham, ‘Heritage as Knowledge’, 1006. 98. Başaran and Gürcüm, ‘Last Master’, 104, cf. 103. 99. Arıbal, Çolak Molla, 3, 7. 100. Başaran and Gürcüm, ‘Last Master’, 122. 101. Başaran and Gürcüm, ‘Last Master’, 103. 102. Evkuran, ‘Önsöz/Foreword’, 9.