O, the passions of oily Turkish men

Even before the pehlwans square off in the mud, the air is already wrestling with a mix of bruised earth and olive oil. Men of all ages and build, gleaming like magazine models from head to toe, prep for a day under the July sun in Edirne.

For over six centuries, men have gathered in this northwestern Turkish city for Kırkpınar, the yağlı güreş or oil wrestling festival for what is considered the national sport. It has been around for so long that it was ancient by the time the Olympics were revived in 1896.

“People say it’s all tall tales about the history of this festival. But whether you believe it or not, it’s all true,” says 59-year-old Yakup Kaya, as he weaves the taxi through Edirne’s cobbled streets and Ottoman-era lanes towards Sarayiçi Er Meydani, where Kirkpinar comes alive.

Legend has it that in 1361 Suleyman Pasha, the son of the second Ottoman sultan, Orhan I, and his army of forty soldiers, marched through the Eastern Thracian province of Edirne. To kill time, the men were paired off to wrestle. But one of the pairs, said to be brothers, went on fighting for days and even torchlight nights, until both men died of exhaustion. Their fellow warriors buried them under an old fig tree and when troops returned the next season, they found water had sprung at the spot. They named this spot Kırkpınar or Forty Springs.

The Guinness World Records puts it down as one of the oldest running festivals, and Unesco has listed it as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. “This 665-year-old cultural heritage doesn’t only hold importance for Türkiye,” says Edirne Mayor Filiz Gencan Akın, “but also for the entire world.“

This year, as he has for decades, journalist Gökhan Tuzla has come to cover the festival which has attracted 840 wrestlers this time. The men train for months in punishing routines, wait an entire year, and arrive with the deference of pilgrims.

Before every match begins, the pehlwan walks onto the Er Meydanı and kisses its ground as an acknowledgment that he comes from this earth and will eventually return to it. “Kirkpinardoes not produce champions,” says Tuzla. “It produces ‘kibar adamlar’ (humble or refined men, depending on your semantics). You cannot wrestle in oil and leather under the sun........

© Dawn Prism