Runaway inflation is proving costly for Turkey’s oil-wrestlers

There is a distinctive sound that an oiled-up palm makes as it slaps against an oiled-up pair of leather shorts. Both squelchy and sharp, this noise rings around the Thracian town of Edirne each July as it hosts Turkey’s biggest oil-wrestling championship. As the name suggests, contenders are greased up with either olive, corn or sunflower oil before they start to fight. The competition begins with a languid ritual in which the wrestlers stomp around each other, touching the ground and themselves before commencing their tussle. The winner must then flip his opponent on to his back, often by reaching into his shorts and grabbing hold of a tag sewn into the lining. It may look like a novelty event put on for tourists, but oil-wrestling is centuries old. The competition is taken so seriously in this sunflower- and olive-growing country that it is televised. In smoky teahouses, moustachioed old men tune in.

Three tonnes of olive oil were used over the course of the three-day Kirkpinar event, which makes it an expensive business at the best of times. These are not the best of times. In Turkish supermarkets, the price of olive oil is double what it was last year, and it is not the only product soaring beyond the reach of many Turks: as of last month, annual inflation is running above 78 per cent, according to official figures.

The minimum wage and state salaries have been hiked twice this year, and private companies are offering huge pay increases. But nothing is keeping up with runaway prices on shop shelves, at the petrol pumps and in estate agents’ windows. ‘The oil is actually the thing the wrestling teams spend least on,’ says Abbas Ulucan, 42, a former oil-wrestling champion who works for the state as a gymnastics teacher.