The “Kemankeş Project”, realized cooperatively by Yunus Emre Institute and Archers Foundation to provide comprehension of the traditional Turkish archery with its historical, sportive, art and cultural elements, to introduce it to the world and to contribute to the intercultural dialogue by raising athletes in this branch around the world, is in the limelight with “Kemankeş Turkish Archery” Exhibition organized in Belgrade this time.

Kemankeş Turkish Archery Exhibition, under the curatorship of Mr. Mehmet Lütfi Şen, was organized under the management of the Chairman of Archery Foundation, Mr. Haydar Ali Yıldız. The project was realized in cooperation with Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia and Ethnographic Museum Belgrade with the contribution of Turkish Embassy in Belgrade, İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, TİKA (Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency) and Yunus Emre Institute. The project, under the general coordinatorship of Mr. Mehmet Erdoğan, Secretary General of the Foundation, was realized with contributions of a lot of experts from İstanbul and Belgrade.

After the exhibition, a program was organized in Yunus Emre Institute Belgrade with the participation of Mr. Bilal Erdoğan, a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the Archery Foundation, Mr. Haydar Ali Yıldız, the Chairman of the Archery Foundation and Mr. Şeref Ateş, the Chairman of Yunus Emre Institute where Turkish Archery trainees were awarded certificates of achievement.

Kemankeş Turkish Archery

Having conducted a lot of significant projects in every branch of Turkish archery since its foundation, the Archery Foundation organized the Kemankeş Turkish Archery Exhibition within the scope of 4th International Conquest Cup organized under auspices of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey in 2016. This exhibition prepared with original pieces from the time of Ottoman Empire and Seljuq Empire shedding light on the history of the Turkish archery was also held in Bosnia and Herzegovina from September 23 to 15 October 15, 2017, and became the very first exhibition with the said characteristics held outside of Turkey. On the other hand, several pieces which were not on display in the two previous exhibitions were exhibited to visitors in the exhibition held in Belgrade.

Visitors of the Kemankeş Turkish Archery Exhibition have an opportunity to have a closer look at the original pieces displayed in the exhibition. The exhibition offers the advanced archery to its visitors in an environment supported by visual and written media and videos. In addition, athletes of the oldest sports organization of the world, where the longest range world record was broken, and its founding will are examined. That the activity was held in Belgrade, the hometown of the famous Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, means that two nations placing importance on archery in their history meet on a common ground.

Bow making phases, the required materials and tools for bow making, samples of bows in the phase of making and several bows used in Ottoman period, such as target bows (puta), flight bows (menzil) or kepaze are displayed in the bow section of the exhibition, most of the pieces of which were provided by İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality and through various private collections.  In arrow section, arrow crafting workbench consisting of materials, such as pishtahta (small coffer), miyane (carpet), hadde (roller mill), wood for arrow crafting, arrow sticks, arrow crafting phases, tools and materials, and arrow samples used during Ottoman period, such as pishrev, havagezi, puta, heki, meshk and ibrish are exhibited. In another exhibition area, in addition to the main structure, the wrist shield, candles, kubur, sadak (quiver) and zihgir types bringing the Turkish Archery to perfection are presented to visitors.  The exhibition supported by several institutions from both Turkey and Serbia brings its visitors together with indelible marks of a great civilization.