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'Oil
Wrestlers' Do Not Want Gays Watching
ISTANBUL, April 7
(Reuters) - Turkey's oil wrestlers -- burly men who cover themselves in olive
oil and grapple with each other wearing leather trousers -- are trying to stop
a group of homosexuals coming to watch.
The group calling
themselves Bears of Turkey is advertising on the Internet (www.ayilar.net)
for a tour to watch the 639th Kirkpinar oil wrestling championships to be held
on July 1 and 2 near Turkey's northwestern city of Edirne.
"It's
immoral," Anatolian news agency quoted Traditional Sports Federation
Chairman Alper Yazoglu as saying. "We are trying every way to have this
stopped...We shall pass this matter on to the interior, foreign and other
ministries to ask for this disgusting business to be stopped."
The sport of oil
wrestling dates back to the Turks' exodus from Central Asia in the middle
ages.
The often moustachioed
wrestlers, their muscles rippling in olive oil under the hot sun, try to pin
each other to the ground. Putting a hand down the opponent's trousers to get a
better grip is a common tactic.
Homosexuality is not
banned in overwhelmingly Moslem Turkey, and several big cities have thriving
gay scenes, but police harassment is frequent and the issue is generally
considered taboo.
Friday, 7 April 2000
12:48:49
RTRS [nL07125947]
Reuters, 7 Nisan 2000
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