Following the conclusion of the Paris 2024 Olympics, questions have been raised regarding Türkiye's modest medal count and absence of gold, despite having experienced champions and young talents on its team. The Minister of Youth and Sports, Osman Aşkın Bak, pointed to the federations of each sport as key contributors to the nation's underperformance. Last week, Turkish national archers Yasemin Ecem Anagöz and Gülnaz Büşranur Coşkun penned an open letter to journalist Barış Pehlivan at Cumhuriyet, exposing concerns about irregularities within the Turkish Archery Federation, particularly regarding the Olympic selection process.
Both athletes have represented Türkiye since their debut in the national team in 2013. Their individual and team achievements have set milestones in the history of Turkish archery. Moreover, they are the only athletes in the past 20 years to have won the European Archery Championships in the senior category.
Despite having an inspiring career, they were excluded from the national archery team in the Olympics. At the beginning of the Olympic year, it was announced that the top 8 ranked athletes would qualify for the team. However, this rule was abolished in the final competition of the season and a new criteria concerning the age of archers in women’s category was introduced. The new regulation stipulated that only female athletes over the age of 21 ranked within the top 5 would be eligible for team selection. This marked a notable shift for the 64-year-old federation, especially given that an athlete ranked 8th in the previous Tokyo Olympics was over 30 years old.
“This age rule, which has never been seen anywhere else in the world, contradicts both the Olympic spirit and the nature of archery, a sport where athletes can perform at a high level even at the age of 50,” Anagöz and Coşkun stated in their letter.
In addition to the age requirement, the pair remarked that the athletes already in the top 5 were given extra points by the technical committee regardless of their performance. As a result, Anagöz and Coşkun ended up in 6th and 7th place and got dismissed from the national team.
“Since the athletes they [the Federation] supported could not beat us on the field, they introduced this rule to hinder us from even participating in the selections. Instead of sending a full team [3 women athletes] to the Olympics, they chose to exclude us and send only one athlete from the Archery Foundation,” they said.
Although the amendment was hastily enforced by the Archery Federation, Anagöz continued to challenge the rule. She appealed to the arbitration board, alas, her appeal was ultimately dismissed by 6 of the 7 members.
Anagöz revealed that following her lawsuit against the Federation, national team coaches allegedly contacted her teammate Coşkun, threatening her not to pursue any complaints. They even reportedly offered her a coaching position in exchange for her silence. According to their letter, this was not the first such attempt by the Federation. Previously, the Federation had misused state funds allocated for its elections by offering club coaches luxurious vacations disguised as seminars and competitions to secure their votes. As a result, the Federation had been penalized by the Supreme Court for election-related irregularities. Correspondingly with its history of corruption, the Federation attempted a similar tactic with Coşkun.
“We both refused to collaborate with those who wronged us,” they remarked.
However, the obstacles they encountered on the path to defending their rights were not limited to these. A defamatory article targeting both Anagöz and Coşkun was published on the official website of the Archery Federation on International Women’s Day because of their dissent. According to their letter, there have been numerous attempts to sideline the archers by calling coaches and athletes from clubs in all cities, sending messages in WhatsApp groups and claiming that anyone who spoke to them or support their cause and trainings would become the Federation’s enemy.
It was further mentioned by Anagöz that her club was unofficially bought out allegedly by the Federation, causing her to leave her own club by force. “I lost my training venue and license to participate in the competitions. Later on, I went to the Ministry of Youth and Sports' centers to train. However, the federation official and national team head coach Göktuğ Ergin commanded that if I entered the center again, a report would be filed against me and I should be removed from the premises,” she claimed.
Another issue raised in the letter was the mobbing and humiliation athletes endured during national team camps. The athletes claimed that whenever they independently improved their performance, officials would deliberately tamper with their bow settings, negatively impacting their shots as a form of intimidation if they excelled and later resisted the regulations. They also described facing demoralizing language following poor performances in competitions. One example of such harsh criticism included being told, "You are a terrorist; even a chair is worth more than you do.”
After surviving an environment where both physical and mental sabotage occurred, the athletes were constantly warned not to mention themselves and their individual efforts in the interviews, according to the statement. Instead, they were instructed to attribute their achievements to national team coach Göktuğ Ergin and the Archery Federation.
"Subsequent to becoming the European Champion, I was told to only talk about Göktuğ Ergin in interviews and to thank him. I didn’t comply with their request and I mentioned all the coaches instead. Because of this, right after the competition, unnecessary changes were made to my bow settings and shooting technique, causing my scores to drop,” Coşkun said in an interview given to İlkses. “What really bothers us is that when there’s success, it’s often the coaches who haven’t even been to the field that claim credit for it. They manipulate the athletes into believing that they achieved it only thanks to them,” she further added.
Along with Anagöz and Coşkun, other athletes from their era were subjected to mobbing and eventually were removed from the team since they did not conform to the instructions.
Upon the publication of the letter, archers who represented Türkiye at the Olympics, Mete Gazoz, Abdullah Yıldırmış, Ulaş Berkim Tümer and Elif Berra Gökkır, released a press statement refuting the letter and accusing it to be a calumny. They all posted the same text on their social media saying, “The smear campaign against Turkish archery and Turkish archery coaches, fueled by the slanderous posts and statements made by two former athletes over the past few days, has reached an intolerable level. It is well known that the allegations made by these two athletes, who are not hesitating to ruin their own careers and allow themselves to be used for the upcoming elections, are unreal. As individuals committed to Turkish archery, we would like to inform everyone that these claims should not be credited.”
While both the Archery Federation and the pair’s former teammates denied the incidents discussed in the letter, Anagöz and Coşkun concluded their words as, “Perhaps our other teammates didn’t fight like us because they were tired or thought they couldn’t win. However, we want this era to end, and we want an archery environment where everyone competes fairly and trains without favoritism.”
The letter penned by Anagöz and Coşkun has resonated across the Turkish sports community. For some, it served as evidence of why Türkiye slipped in the overall Olympic rankings and faced a disappointing outcome this season. While the accuracy extent of the archers' claims remains a subject of debate, it is widely acknowledged that athletes from various sports in Türkiye such as athletics and football, have previously spoken out about mobbing and favoritism within their respective federations. To ensure a more promising future for current and aspiring athletes, these systemic issues must be addressed and resolved. The letter is expected to prompt federations to reassess their practices and better recognize and reward athletes based on merit.