95-year-old Turkish yogi stirs debate with sex life claim

ISTANBUL

Hürriyet columnist Ayşe Arman (L) and Yogi Kazım in the southwestern Turkish resort of Gümüşlük. Photos: Emre Yunusoğlu

Amid a heavy agenda of coalition talks and terror attacks, Turkish social media users have also been debating in the past few days the claims by a 95-year-old yogi who says he has found the secret to a long, active sex life.

The debate was triggered on Aug. 9 when daily Hürriyet columnist Ayşe Arman published an interview with Kazım Gürbüz, a yoga teacher born in the southern Turkish province of Adana in 1920.


“I can prove that I am in better condition than your 28-year-old photographer friend. For instance, can he hold his breath for 4-5 minutes?”

What about his sex life?

“I am the same as when I was 25-30 years old. They challenged me to prove it in Europe, so I did,” Yogi Kazım said.

This despite the fact that he was badly injured in a car crash when he was 41. 

“At the time I had money, women adored me, and I got so carried away with success that God punished me,” he said. 


Noting that he lost his sexual abilities after his back was broken in the accident, causing partial paralysis, he claimed to have cured himself by allowing his friends to crack his vertebral bones back into place. 

“I was reborn, but I made a mistake. I now have a bump in my waist. I could have prevented that if I had tied a stick to my back [when he cracked his vertebrae back],” he said.

It is not possible to verify all of Yogi Kazım’s claims, but his “young” body speaks for itself. 

But not all Turks are convinced.

“If the man’s sexual life ended when he was 25-30 years old, of course he could still have the same sexual power when he is 95,” Hürriyet columnist Ertuğrul Özkök quoted the daily’s senior photojournalist Sebati Karakurt as saying on Aug. 12.

“This explanation sounds more rational,” Özkök wrote.