AWARD CEREMONY

The committee of The Municipality of Edirne participated at the award ceremony in Bordeaux, France on September 17-19th with its project of “Traditional Kirkpinar Oily Wrestling” in the theme of intangible heritage being done by the EU and International Relations Office of The Municipality. The award ceremony being participated by 20 European countries was performed on September 18th, 2008 on Thursday, which was the second day of European Tourism Forum, at 14:30-18:00. Namik Kemal Doleneken, councillor, the coordinator of EU and International Relations Office and the representative of The Mayor and Mesude Senol, project curator and the supervisor of The EU and International Relations Office attended to the ceremony as official guests of European Commission. In addition, Erkut Atalar, member of Presidency of EU Coordination Office of Foreign Relations Department of Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Ovgu Pinar, journalist of the paper Milliyet associated with the national press attended to the ceremony apart from our municipality.  Moreover, Seyfettin Selim, The Aga of Kirkpinar (who undertakes the organization of that year) in the periods of 2008-2009; Recep Kara, master-pehlivan (wrestling champion) in the period of 2008-2009 and Osman Aynur, master-pehlivan of the 645th Traditional Kirkpinar Oily Wrestlings were present at the ceremony. Gunter VERHEUGEN, vice president of The European Commission presented their awards to participants. Exhibition stands of participant countries were open on September 17th, 2008 on Wednesday, one day before the award ceremony.  The Municipality of Edirne, organizer of the traditional oily wrestling activity presented the activity and the city during the programme. Large number of guests visited our exhibition stand. This award ceremony enables the traditional Kirkpinar Oily Wrestling to be advertised in Europe and the ceremony can be seen on“http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/services/tourism/forums_index.htm” website.
Also, a short film of Edirne and traditional Kirkpinar Oily Wrestling, shot by Chaos Film Company from Belgium, working for European Commission, can be seen on the same link at the same time with the award ceremony in the first week of July.