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<i>ASPECTS OF TURKEY,</i>
<i>PAST AND PRESENT</i>

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The announcer calls the men to the fight,
"Pehlivan! Pehlivan!"

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Wrestler, paladin, knight.
It's the same word.

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The battle will last for three days.

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It's the "yagli gures" championship,

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which literally means "grease wrestling".

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In summer in the Ottoman Empire,

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in the days when Edirne
was the capital 600 years ago,

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when troops got together for recreation,

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soldiers started fighting
in the confines of the camp.

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Yagli gures is an ancient tradition
a thousand years old.

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Nomadic ancestors,
Turks from Mongolia,

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used to floor each other
the way today's pehlivans do,

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but in front of a yurt in short grass
on a high plateau in Asia.

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The name inscribed
in the leather of their trousers

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is "pehlivan" meaning wrestler or knight.

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Like the remains of a suit of armour,

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these black leather trousers
are stiff and shiny.

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The pehlivans come
from all over Turkey,

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from Kars, from the borders,
from the vaunted plateau<i>x</i>,

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from dark Konya or green Bursa,

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the cold banks of the Black Sea
or the scorching banks of the Aegean,

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from closer by in Istanbul,

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or from here, Edirne in Thrace.

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The ritual warm-up to the fight.

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A military parade.

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Pagan moves.

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Incantations to the earth and the sun.

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Peasant offerings
and religious genuflections.

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There are ten rounds of fighting.

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A hundred strangleholds
on these oiled-up bodies.

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No holds are barred,
but the hands slip all over the place.

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The only really effective holds
are to the backs of the knees

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and between the legs.

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That's why the fingers cling on
to the bottom of the trousers

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and the arm is plunged
below the belly and the thighs.

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The wrestler has taken care to dampen
and oil the inside of his trousers

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to stop his opponent's hands
from getting a grip there.

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You just need to get him belly-up.

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More often than not,
it happens quick as a flash,

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the loser's back
barely brushing the grass.

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The fights last three days.

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One can grow weary
of male exhibitionism.

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A complementary show is laid on
at the entrance to the stadium.

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These young Gypsy girls dance
for twelve hours in the overheated tent.

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The most remarkable thing
about their show

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is that they manage to avoid
the rusty nails sticking out of the stage.

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These silent, discreet Turkish women
contradict all the fuss.

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Their strength lies
in their self-effacement.