Camel Culture in Turkey and The Legal and Socio-Economic Structure of The Camel Wrestling Union

Camels have been used in transportation in Turkey as in all geographies. The struggle of male camels with each other has been turned into wrestling matches over time and has gained an institutional dimension for people who own camels. As a result of the matches, camel culture has been able to reproduce itself today. Camel wrestling has become widespread and increased its popularity in the western coast of Turkey and in the provinces close to the coast. With the spread of camel wrestling especially after 1980, a demand and search for institutionalisation and organisation emerged. In this process, coffeehouses where camel owners came together had an important function. These coffeehouses, which can be regarded as the first step of the organisation, have first transformed into associations and then into a union with the merging of the associations. The organisation steps of camel wrestling, which has been maintaining its traditional structure for centuries in Turkey, were taken in 2012 and 2013. As a result of the corporate identity and organisation requirement of camel wrestling, which continues to exist in the coastal provinces of the Aegean, Marmara and Mediterranean Region, the “Camel Culture and Camel Wrestling Union (CCCWU)” was formed in 2012, with the merging of eight camel wrestling associations in Aydin. The Union of Anatolian Camel Owner Nomads and Camel Wrestling Culture has been established by five camel culture associations in İzmir with the decision of the Governorship of İzmir dated 31.10.2013 and numbered 96462 and the union started to work with the approved statute. The CCCWU gained its legal structure after it was approved by the Aydin Governorship Animal Protection Board in 2014.

This study examined the content and principles of the regulations and by-laws of both unions and evaluated their structure in terms of animal rights and animal welfare. The study also aimed to reveal the contributions of the legal qualities of camel wrestling, whose sustainability is important due to its traditional structure, to camel breeding and organisations. Furthermore, the study aimed to analyse the representation capability of the union by involving the members of the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board, who are on duty since the establishment of the union, in the study. Our study aimed to reveal the economic structure of the unions and its contributions to the economy of camel culture by including the budget information of the unions (income-expense table and donations, membership fees, income from wrestling, etc.).