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Erdoğan to meet with Roma representatives in March
According to the Anatolia news agency, Çelik said the aim of the meeting is to discuss proposals for solutions to problems faced by the Roma. He noted that Erdoğan will declare what steps will be taken to help the Roma community.
Çelik said the government launched a Roma workshop in December to listen to the Roma with the purpose of learning what they expect from the government. A number of proposals were made after the workshop, with Çelik pledging that the first step will be to construct new housing for the Roma community in Turkey with the cooperation of the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ).
Roma demand establishment of Roma institutes at universities
A report prepared by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government on the demands of the Roma people in Turkey, including the establishment of Roma institutes at universities, has been submitted to the opposition parties in Parliament.
The government is working to expand the rights of previously disadvantaged groups and communities such as Kurds, Alevis and Roma.
A government-sponsored workshop was held on Dec. 9, 2009 to address issues facing the Roma community. Representatives of Turkey’s Roma community in İstanbul, Edirne, Kırşehir, Artvin, Van and several other cities, 120 people in all, attended the event.
Çelik, the state minister in charge of the Religious Affairs Directorate, sent a report on the Roma workshop to the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), asking for their views on and contributions to the issue.
The report includes Roma requests to be mentioned in the Friday sermons, the inclusion of information about Roma in textbooks and the elimination of insulting expressions against Roma from course books as well as the provision of identity cards to all Roma and social programs to keep Roma children from abusing drugs, along with the prevention of early marriages.
Since many Roma people live as nomads, they often do not have identity cards.
Among other things, the Roma people want to receive an education and be respected in society.
According to the workshop report there are 500,000 Roma living in Turkey, while other sources estimate as many as 2 million. Some 20,000 Turkish Roma are nomads. The most significant problem of the Roma is insult and discrimination. They are generally referred to as “çingene,” a pejorative term which means gypsy, but there are 20 other expressions commonly used in Turkish to refer to them.
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