The Romani people in Turkey. There are many subgroups, the majority group are the Şoparlar, who live in East Thrace. All subgroups in Turkey have in common, that they are Sunni muslims and speak Turkish. There are officially about 500,000 Romani in Turkey.
History
Origin
The Romani people in Turkey originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan, Sindh and Punjab. The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that roots of Romani language lie in 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. More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India and migrated as a group. 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.
Migration to Turkey
There are records of the presence of the Romani people from the 9th century in Asia Minor, known in Greek as Athinganoi and in Turkish as Çingene. The Romanlar in Turkey have their own oral tradition, according to which their ancestors, called Çangar/, once came from northern India as musicians and dancers. They arrived at the time of the Sasanian Empire, from Persia, through Sasanian Egypt, to the Byzantine Empire. With the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, Romani settled in Rumelia under Ottoman rule. The name Roman/Romanlar came from the Turkish Doğu Roman İmparatorluğu. Sulukule in Istanbul is the oldest Romani settlement in Europe, recorded in 1054, and another in Edirne dates from at least 1068. The majority of the Romani people in Turkey live in East Thrace. Uniquely in Ottoman history, the Muslim Romani people were given their own sanjak, or province, the sanjak of Vize. Romani people in Turkey speak Turkish as their first language, and no longer use Romani. They often marry non-Romani. The descendants of the Ottoman Romani today are known as Muslim Roma. They are of Sunni Islamic faith of Hanafimadhab, and practise male Khitan. In Edirne, the Kakava festival is held every year.
Legal status
In modern Turkey, Xoraxane Romani do not have a legal status of 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, in which Section III "Protection of Minorities" put an emphasis on non-Muslim minorities.
