http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704678004576089830885948812.html?mod=fox_australian
What's a Bigger Draw Than a Camel Fight? A Camel Beauty Contest, of Course As Ancient Sport Struggles to Stay Relevant in Modern Turkey, Organizers Launch a Pageant By JOE PARKINSON SELCUK, Turkey-Chariot, a 1,500-pound, single-humped camel with spittle hanging from his lips and pompoms in his tail, just won the first-ever beauty contest at Turkey's annual camel fighting competition. Here He Comes, Mr. Camel View Slideshow Thomas DiFonzo/The Wall Street Journal Ismail Egilmez, right, paraded his camel, Chariot, who won the beauty pageant. a.. More photos and interactive graphics According to the pageant's four stony-faced judges, Chariot had better muscle tone, prettier adornments and a more elegant tail wag as he strutted along a catwalk of rugs to the sound of Turkish pipes and drums last weekend. Plus, they said, he had exceptionally good teeth. To the uninitiated, what makes a camel beautiful isn't exactly obvious. But organizers of the Selcuk championship hope the addition of a pageant will draw new enthusiasts to the sport of camel fighting, which is struggling to stay relevant in an increasingly modern and urbanized Turkey. The annual camel-wrestling tournament in Selcuk, Turkey draws 20,000 visitors from around the country. Now there's a new addition to the event: A camel beauty contest. WSJ's Joe Parkinson reports. And while Turkish fighting camels may be even bigger and hairier than their Arab cousins, to their fans, they are beauty incarnate. "Camels are very sophisticated and realize people are watching them, so they're trying to pose," explained Necidet Durmaz, one of the judges in Selcuk and a jeweler by trade. "Some camels will stop, open their back legs and wave their tail, or cock their head back and moan-this is the kind of posing we are looking for." Ismail Egilmez, who bought Chariot just weeks ago for 35,000 Turkish lira ($22,600), was thrilled. "I love this camel as much as I love my family, more maybe. Look how beautiful he is," said the 35-year-old professional camel trainer, apparently oblivious to the foamy camel saliva on his jacket. He clutched his prize, a new camel bell to put on Chariot's wooden saddle-gold plated, "for added jingle," said Metin Cimak, the tournament's organizer. The Selcuk championship is the highlight of Turkey's camel fighting calendar, when some 20,000 visitors descend on the town in western Turkey to watch the animals rumble. The three-month fighting season takes place in winter, because that's when female camels go into heat and males will attack each other for the right to mate. Organizers used to arrange female camels just outside the fighting ring, training them to recline seductively so their scent would egg contestants on. (The winners didn't get the girl.) But the males became so aggressive they injured each other, leading to brawls among the owners. The practice was stopped. Instead, the camels are essentially starved for three months before a bout to make them irritable. (Animal-rights groups have long complained, but haven't organized formal protests here.) In the ring, camels twist necks and wrestle for up to 10 minutes. The winner is the one that knocks his opponent down, or at least doesn't bolt. Chariot Some camels are famed for signature moves, such as pinning their opponent's head with their knees, or sweeping the foe's legs from underneath him. At Selcuk, headlocks were greeted by roars of approval from the crowd, and a higher octave from the commentator's relentless play-by-play. The air was thick with the scent of musky camel sweat, mixed with the smoke of grilled meats, mainly barbequed camel. Biting ankles and forelocks is also a recognized fighting technique, although contestants are muzzled to limit injuries. Ribbons of saliva fly as the snorting camels lock, push, bite and grab before a winner or tie is declared and handlers rush in with ropes to haul them apart. One named Crazy Ozer is said to be the greatest fighting camel of his generation. "He doesn't fight with his body, he fights with his brain...; he's simply unbeatable," said judge Necidet Durmaz. Crazy Ozer won his bout against Savanora, named for a yacht once belonging to modern Turkey's secular founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Recently, there was a fashion for naming camels after political leaders. Four years ago at Selcuk, George Bush fought Saddam Hussein. They tied. Camel beauty pageants are a fixture in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, though they're typically held alongside competitive camel racing rather than fighting. They are also big business. Last year, in the United Arab Emirates, one camel sold for $2.7 million, and one entrant in a beauty contest of 10,000 camels took home $10 million. In Turkey the sums involved are more modest, but it's no longer a sport for the poor. The starting price for a fighting camel is between 20,000 and 50,000 Turkish lira. Superstars like Crazy Ozer can fetch up to 250,000 lira, or nearly $160,000. Camel fighting has a long tradition here, but the government discouraged the sport after the Turkish Republic was formed in 1923, proclaiming it backward and non-European. It was only after a military coup in 1980 that a new regime revived the art as it promoted Turkey's pre-Islamic heritage. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! 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