Commemoration for Bulgarian-born weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu to be held in Istanbul

A day in memory of the late weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu is to be held in Istanbul's Avcılar district on 18 November. Organised by the Balkan Turks Association and Avcılar Municipality, the ceremony will begin at 2 pm at Suleymanoglu’s grave in Edirnekapı Cemetery.

Suleymanoglu, born Naim Suleymanov on 23 January 1967 in Ptichar, Kardzhali Province, Bulgaria, passed away on 18 November 2017 in Istanbul. Following a municipal council decision, a park in Avcılar, a district with a large Bulgarian expatriate community where the Olympic and world champion lived, now bears his name.

Nicknamed the 'Pocket Hercules' because of his height of around 1.47 metres and extraordinary strength, Suleymanoglu won titles in both Bulgaria and Turkey, setting 46 world records in the process. He was among those affected by the so-called ‘Revival Process’, a state campaign in the 1980s that forced ethnic Turks to adopt Bulgarian names. His name was changed to Naum Shalamanov in 1985. In an act of protest, In December 1986, during the World Cup in Melbourne, he left Bulgaria for Turkey, where he was welcomed as a national hero.