Written by Huma Baig
The Roma people have been living in Europe for thousands of years, with their earliest existence being recorded from the 13th century. Today, they number between 10-12 million in Europe with approximately 6 million situated within countries part of the European Union, thereby making them the largest ethnic minority in Europe. Being large in number certainly has not been enough to combat the disadvantaged life style many of them live. Evidence shows that much Roma groups live under devastatingly poor living conditions and face extreme levels of social exclusion including prejudice and all kinds of discrimination with labels such as ‘criminal’ and ‘dirty’ being attached to them. Often such negative terms are associated with the Romani people which gives a rather inaccurate and harmful representation of them.
The total population of Roma people residing in Turkey appears to be uncertain. Some sources suggest that there are 2 million Roma citizens whilst others argue the real number is as high as 5 million. Due to them living in overcrowded households and numerous not holding identity cards, many are not recorded in national data thereby making it difficult to establish how much they actually number. In terms of religion, the Roma people are by a majority basis either Sunni or Alevi Muslim, with a small number being a part of the Rum orthodox religious group and more recently there’s been a small number of Protestants who have converted from Islam being identified as Roma.
The Romani people of Turkey originated from Northern India as shown by the vast similarities between the Romani language and Indian languages where they both share many phonetic features and a big part of the basic lexicon. A genetic study published in 2012 found that the ancestors of present day tribes and clans of northern India are very likely to be the ancestors of modern day European Roma groups. To further illustrate this claim, in 2016 the Indian Minister of External affairs stated that the Roma community were the children of India and a recommendation was made to recognise the Roma people spread across 30 different countries as being part of the Indian Diaspora. This portrays the strong Indian heritage of the Turkish Romani groups. Possibly, the Roma migration in particular the gypsy groups dates back from the beginning of Ottoman rule where records show that Suleiman the Magnificent enacted a special law in 1530 for Gypsy settlers where they were defined in terms of their age, job and marital status in order to receive regular taxes. Interestingly, the Gypsies serving in the Ottoman army had a high social status and prestige compared to their present-day depiction which appears to be quite the opposite.
In the past decade, there has been an increase in the awareness of the discrimination faced by the Roma population in Turkey. The International Romani Studies Network (IRSN) found that the Roma were on a large basis under-educated, underemployed, had higher levels of ill-health and experienced higher incidences of discrimination than any other group in the country. Furthermore, Roma children have virtually limited role models to look up to other than musicians who often hide their ethnic identity due to the stigmatisation attached which would have a negative impact of their careers. However, on a more positive note the Turkish Prime minister has made an attempt to address some of the huge problems faced by the group through a Roma community meeting. This meeting was supported by the Council of Europe who expressed their gratitude for the Turkish governments commitment to the Roma people. This movement has paved the way for greater improvements for the Roma Groups lives.
European London 