Roma in Turkey

The Roma are an ethnic minority of Turkey. They descend from the times of the Byzantine Empire. Records about their presence in 9th century Asia Minor exist, where they arrived from Persia. With the expanse of the Ottoman Empire Turkish Roma settled also in Rumelia (Southern Europe under the Ottoman rule). Sulukule is the oldest Roma settlement in Europe. The descendants of the Ottoman Roma today are known as Xoraxane Roma and are of the Islamic faith.[1]

In modern Turkey Xoraxane Roma do not have a legal status of ethnic minority. This goes as far back as the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), in which Section III "Protection of Minorities" put an emphasis on non-Muslim minorities .[2]

There are officially about 500,000 Roma in Turkey.[3][4][5][6] By different Turkish and Non-Turkish estimates the number of Roma is up to 5,000,000,[7][8] while according to a Turkish source, they are only 0.05% of Turkey's population (or roughly 35,000 persons).[9]

References

  1. ^ 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).(Bulgarian)
  2. ^ "Treaty of Lausanne"
  3. ^ http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,4565c2253b,4677ea9b2,46ef87ab32,0.html
  4. ^ http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav072205.shtml
  5. ^ http://www.ihf-hr.org/viewbinary/viewdocument.php?doc_id=7081
  6. ^ http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=188686 Merkezin çalışmasında Türkiye'de resmi rakamlara göre 500 bin, tahminen de iki milyon civarında Roman olduğu yer alıyor.
  7. ^ "Türkiye’deki Çingene nüfusu tam bilinmiyor. 2, hatta 5 milyon gibi rakamlar dolaşıyor Çingenelerin arasında.": Article from Hürryet
  8. ^ Roma, according to latest estimations of some experts, number between 4 and 5 million. European Roma Information Office
  9. ^ "Bu düzenlemeyle ortaya çıkan tabloda Türkiye’de yetişkinlerin (18 yaş ve üstündekilerin) etnik kimliklerin dağılımı ... % 0,05 Roman ... şeklindedir.": http://www.konda.com.tr/html/dosyalar/ttya_tr.pdf

See also

External links