Turkey has reached a major milestone and celebrates its tricenary anniversary this year. The country has seen significant growth and looks forward to an exciting future.
Founded on 31 May 1991, later that year the Turkish Badminton Federation (TBF) joined the BWF (then IBF) as the 104th member. The following year they were affiliated as full Badminton Europe members on 1st May 1992.
During these 30 years, Turkey has made their mark on European badminton.
Turkey participated for the first time at the Olympics in 2012 with Neslihan Yiğit at just 18 years of age. This year, Yiğit took home the bronze from the 2021 European Championships, the second to do so after Özge Bayrak in 2014. Together, Yiğit and Bayrak won the women’s doubles bronze at the 2015 European Games.
Since 2004, Murat Özmekik has been the federation's president. In 2014, Mr Özmekik was elected Badminton Europe Vice President and is immensely proud of what his country has achieved in the world of badminton.
-In these 30 years, we spread badminton to all 81 provinces in Turkey. We manufacture badminton equipment and send it to schools, grassroots projects, national players and over 10 different social responsibility projects. We are the only federation in the world that sells this equipment from the TBF sports shop.
-We are also proud that we are the only federation that supports the coaches with session fees as additional income. With 20,000 coaches we are in second place of all the sports federations in Turkey. In terms of social responsibility projects, we are number one in Turkey.
Turkey’s first president was Mr İrfan Yıldırım, followed by Mr Akın Taşkent and after him Mr Faik İmamoğlu, who unfortunately passed away 10 years ago. Current president Murat Özmekik sends his thanks to all of them for their service to Turkish Badminton.
The bright future
Turkey has invested a lot into the young generation. In 1997, the sixth European U17 Team Championships (Polonia Cup) with a record entry of 21 teams was staged in Istanbul, Turkey.
The 2013 European Junior Championships took place in Ankara, Turkey. The Championships saw bronze medals for Neslihan Yiğit and Busenur Korkmaz/ Özge Toyran, players who were just picking up the racket for the first time in the late nineties – when Turkey hosted their first event. They followed the bronze medal successes of Emre Lale and Özge Bayrak.
Muhammed Ali Kurt and Aliye Demirbağ repeated the double bronze medal win in 2015. Turkey got their junior gold in 2018 with Bengisu Erçetin/ Nazlıcan İnci in the women’s doubles. Ece Sare Başakın/ Zehra Erdem were also on the podium with bronze.
-We take a lot of power from our past and are walking forward with the support of our players, coaches, referees and with all the fans, confidently into the future, says General Secretary of the Turkish Badminton Federation, Isa Ayan.
-In the capital, Ankara, at our Olympic Badminton Center, one of the few in the world, we are preparing to have new achievements. I am very proud to be a part of this big community and serve as a General Secretary. I wish that our Federation is going to live for many years to come!
Happy Birthday!