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Romani people in Turkey

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Romani people in Turkey
Türkiye'deki Romanlar
Romanlar
Total population
at least 500,000-5,000,000
Regions with significant populations
Istanbul (Sulukule), East Thrace/Edirne, Marmara Region, Aegean Region, İzmir Province, Antalya Province
Languages
Balkan Romani, Turkish, Rumelian Turkish
Religion
Sunni Islam, Sufism
Part of a series on
Romani people
Flag of the Romani people
Romani people by sub-group
Romani diaspora by country

The Romani people in Turkey (Template:Lang-tr) are Sunni muslims who speak Turkish as their first language and take the Turkish culture. The majority of the Turkish Romani live in Istanbul, East Thrace and the İzmir Province. The name Roman/Romanlar comes from the Turkish Doğu Roman İmparatorluğu (Eastern Roman Empire). They are also called Şopar (Gypsy kid) in Balkan Romani, and Çingene (Athinganoi) in Turkish.

There are officially about 500,000 Romani people in Turkey.[1][2][3][4]

History

Origin

The Romani people in Turkey originate from the Indian subcontinent,[5][6][7][8][9][10] presumably from Rajasthan, Sindh[9][10] and Punjab.[9] The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that the roots of the Romani language lie in Central India: The language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a big part of the basic lexicon, for example, body parts or daily routines.[11] More precisely, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Sanskrit and Prakrit.[12] Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in Central India, then went north-west and thereafter to Sindh where they stayed for a while, afterwards migrating in the 1st or 2nd century AD in waves to Roman Egypt where they intermingled with Egyptians[6][7][13] However, the Muslim Romani people have Turkish and Crimean Tatars ancestors too, because Muslim Roma woman intermingled since the Ottoman times, with Turks and Crimean Tatars. Therefore, they belong to different haplogroups.[14]

In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were "children of India". The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community, spread across 30 countries, as a part of the Indian diaspora.[15]

Migration to Turkey

According to their oral tradition, their ancestors the Chandala came from Hindustan, perhaps from the Sindh, at the time of the Indo-Roman trade relations, to Roman Egypt, and settled in the city of Qift. From Egypt, they went with the Umayyad Arab warriors as sutlers to Anatolia at 740 AD. After the Battle of Akroinon, they settled there. There are records of the presence of Romani people from AD 800 in Thrace, known in Greek as Athinganoi and in Turkish as Çingene. Sulukule in Istanbul is the oldest Roma settlement in Europe, recorded in 1054. The Ottoman Turkish Historian Evliya Çelebi explain in his Seyahatnâme, that Mehmed the Conqueror in 1453, take Muslim Roma Musicans from Balat, Didim and settled in Istanbul.[16] With the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, Muslim Roma settled in Rumelia (southeastern Europe) under Ottoman rule. Uniquely to Ottoman history, the Muslim Roma people were given their own sanjak, or province, the Sanjak of the Çingene at Rumelia, by the order of Suleiman the Magnificent at 1530. [17]

Demographics

The majority of the Romani people in Turkey live in East Thrace, Marmara Region and Aegean Region. Citys whith high percentage of Romanlar are Edirne and Istanbul. Romani people in Turkey speak Turkish as their first language, and no longer use Romani, many of them deny their Romani origins and describe themselves as Turks, or only as Muslim. They see themselves as Turks and have the same cultural similarities with Turks, no similarities with Christian Roma from Europe.[18]

Culture

The Turkish Romani are Cultural Muslims, based of Sunni Islam in the Hanafi school, and practise male khitan (circumcision), engagements and weddings on a grand scale. The Roma bands and their special music in 9/8 beat and songs are particularly well known in Turkey. Belly dance, performed by women and men. In Edirne, they hold the Kakava festival every year.[19]

In modern Turkey, Muslim Romani do not have the legal status of an ethnic minority because they are traditionally adherents of the Islamic faith, adherents of which, regardless of ethnicity or race, are considered part of the ethnic majority in Turkey. This goes as far back as the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), in which Section III "Protection of Minorities" puts an emphasis on non-Muslim minorities.[20]

A group of Turkish Romani appears in the 16th century Ottoman Constantinople of the video game Assassin's Creed: Revelations.

A Turkish TV series made between 2004-2007 called ''Cennet Mahallesi'' is based on Istanbulite Romans.

Yerli and Çerge

The majority of the Romani people in Turkey live in Eastern Thrace, mostly in the Kırklareli Province, they are divided into two Main groups, the Yerli and the Çerge. There are several subgroups of both, named after their old professions which they once practiced or which they still do in part, as example: the Sepetçi (Basketmaker's) or Çiçekçi (Flower seller's) belong to the Yerli, while the Cambazı (Horse trader's) and Ayıcılar (Bear-leader's) to the Çerge. However, mostly all of the different Romani groups today are Working poor in a wide variety of jobs.

The sedentary Yerli and the once nomadic Çerge, live together in the Mahalla, but they don't like each other. The Yerli speak only Turkish as their mother tongue, while the Çerge speak Turkish and Balkan Romani. Although both groups are Muslims, the Yerli look down on the Çerge, and consider them savage, uncivilized and keep their distance from them. Interestingly, the Yerli call themselves Romanlar, while they call the Çerge Çingeneler. The Yerli consider the Çerge to have once come from the Balkan Mountains to Eastern Thrace. [21]

Hintli

A special case are some families in Istanbul who call themselves Hintli (meaning in Turkish: Indian people), explain their brown skin color as follows: They are the descendants of Muslim Indian men of the medical team who once doctored Ottoman soldiers, who were wounded during the Balkan War of 1912-13.[22] After the Balkan war, some of this Indian Muslim Men married Turkish widows and stayed in Istanbul.[23] Their offspring married each other, which explains their appearance. They do not want to be called Romanlar, but their lifestyle and music do not distinguish them from the Romanlar in Istanbul.

  • Postcard of group of Romani in front of their tent in Smyrne (today the city of Izmir) in 1903.
    Postcard of group of Romani in front of their tent in Smyrne (today the city of Izmir) in 1903.
  • A dancing bear around 1970 in Samsun. His holder beats the frame drum Def.
    A dancing bear around 1970 in Samsun. His holder beats the frame drum Def.
  • Romani in Istanbul in 2008.
    Romani in Istanbul in 2008.
  • Kakava celebration at Edirne in 2015.
    Kakava celebration at Edirne in 2015.
  • Children in Ortaköy in Istanbul, 2000.
    Children in Ortaköy in Istanbul, 2000.

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ^ "UNHCR - Document Not Found". Archived from the original on 2012-10-10. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
  2. ^ Schleifer, Yigal (21 July 2005). "Roma Rights Organizations Work to Ease Prejudice in Turkey". Eurasianet.org. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-07-29. Retrieved 2010-02-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-10-20. Retrieved 2010-03-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ Hancock, Ian F. (2005) [2002]. We are the Romani People. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-902806-19-8: ‘While a nine century removal from India has diluted Indian biological connection to the extent that for some Romani groups, it may be hardly representative today, Sarren (1976:72) concluded that we still remain together, genetically, Asian rather than European’{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  6. ^ a b Mendizabal, Isabel (6 December 2012). "Reconstructing the Population History of European Romani from Genome-wide Data". Current Biology. 22 (24): 2342–2349. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.10.039. PMID 23219723.
  7. ^ a b Sindya N. Bhanoo (11 December 2012). "Genomic Study Traces Roma to Northern India". The New York Times.
  8. ^ Current Biology.
  9. ^ a b c K. Meira Goldberg; Ninotchka Devorah Bennahum; Michelle Heffner Hayes (2015-10-06). Flamenco on the Global Stage: Historical, Critical and Theoretical Perspectives. p. 50. ISBN 9780786494705. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  10. ^ a b Simon Broughton; Mark Ellingham; Richard Trillo (1999). World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Rough Guides. p. 147. ISBN 9781858286358. Retrieved 2016-05-21. Roma Rajastan Penjab.
  11. ^ Šebková, Hana; Žlnayová, Edita (1998), Nástin mluvnice slovenské romštiny (pro pedagogické účely) (PDF), Ústí nad Labem: Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity J. E. Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem, p. 4, ISBN 978-80-7044-205-0, archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04
  12. ^ Hübschmannová, Milena (1995). "Romaňi čhib – romština: Několik základních informací o romském jazyku". Bulletin Muzea Romské Kultury (4/1995). Brno. Zatímco romská lexika je bližší hindštině, marvárštině, pandžábštině atd., v gramatické sféře nacházíme mnoho shod s východoindickým jazykem, s bengálštinou.
  13. ^ "5 Intriguing Facts About the Roma". Live Science.
  14. ^ Bánfai, Zsolt; Melegh, Béla I.; Sümegi, Katalin; Hadzsiev, Kinga; Miseta, Attila; Kásler, Miklós; Melegh, Béla (13 June 2019). "Revealing the Genetic Impact of the Ottoman Occupation on Ethnic Groups of East-Central Europe and on the Roma Population of the Area". Frontiers in Genetics. 10: 558. doi:10.3389/fgene.2019.00558. PMC 6585392. PMID 31263480.
  15. ^ "Can Romas be part of Indian diaspora?". Khaleejtimes.com. 29 February 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  16. ^ "THE GYPSIES OF ISTANBUL | History of Istanbul".
  17. ^ https://rm.coe.int/ottoman-empire-factsheets-on-romani-history/16808b193d
  18. ^ http://www.errc.org/uploads/upload_en/file/03/37/m00000337.pdf
  19. ^ Elena Marushiakova, Veselin Popov (2001) "Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire", ISBN 1902806026University of Hertfordshire Press
    • Original: Елена Марушиакова, Веселин Попов (2000) "Циганите в Османската империя". Литавра, София (Litavra Publishers, Sofia).(in Bulgarian)
  20. ^ "Treaty of Lausanne - World War I Document Archive". Lib.byu.edu. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  21. ^ https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/751137
  22. ^ https://heritagetimes.in/the-indian-subcontinent-red-crescent-societys-aid-to-the-ottoman-state-during-the-balkan-war-in-1912/
  23. ^ https://ilmfeed.com/indian-muslims-helped-ottomans-balkan-wars/

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