[Bilimsel Haber] Mundi Romani: Roma in Turkey - the Untold Struggle

[Gonul Pultar]

*Roma in Turkey ? the Untold Struggle*

*Mundi Romani*

*www.mundiromani.com <http://www.mundiromani.com> *

With thorough investigation and through admiration for the untold 
stories, Mundi Romani, a documentary series co-produced by the Romedia 
Foundation and Duna Television Hungary, explores the world of the Roma 
from Kosovo to Spain through Romania, France, Macedonia, Italy or 
Israel. The 16^th episode of Mundi Romani was shot in Edirne and Izmir 
in November 2008. The film focuses on the struggle of the Roma in Turkey 
to save the last shreds of their Roma identity.

 

Roma in Turkey ? the Untold Struggle 

 

In the Turkish democracy, with its 70 million people of many different 
origins, minority-oriented civil initiatives are developing under 
constant state control. While having successfully made Turkey a modern 
republic, Ataturk?s early 20^th century nation building policies 
designed the secular Sunni Turk as the prototype of the modern Turkish 
citizen, thus throwing all other identities out of the public realm. 
Turkey has still not worked on deconstructing this rigidly defined 
identity. So minorities, those who cannot represent their identity like 
the majority, are neglected. They cannot even exist. National minority 
rights such as minority language education for Roma are non-existent in 
Turkey, not to mention anti-discrimination measures. Romanes is 
disappearing among the Roma. Traditional Roma self-awareness is under 
great strain as the Roma remain one of the most underprivileged ethnic 
groups in Turkey. In the 21^st century, the Roma are still slaves to 
Turkey?s 20^th century identity formation.

 

In this episode, again, Mundi Romani gives a voice to the voiceless and 
provides a unique insight into the struggle of the Roma of Turkey to 
reassert their ethnic identity in a country where the development of 
ethnic minority cultures is considered the greatest threat to internal 
stability and is fought against accordingly.

 

 

*The Last Days of Sulukule*

*Mundi Romani*

*www.mundiromani.com <http://www.mundiromani.com/> *

With thorough investigation and through admiration for the untold 
stories, Mundi Romani, a documentary series co-produced by the Romedia 
Foundation and Duna Television Hungary, explores the world of the Roma 
from Kosovo to Spain through Romania, France, Macedonia, Italy or 
Israel. The 17^th episode of the series was shot in November in the 
Sulukule neighborhood of Istanbul?s Old City. The formerly blooming Roma 
district, world famous for its dancers and musicians and part of a 
UNESCO World Heritage Site, is being bulldozed to the ground by the 
local authorities. Last days of a disappearing culture.

 

Mundi Romani: The Last Days of Sulukule

 

Sulukule is a thousand years old and is known as the oldest Roma 
neighborhood in the world. It used to be the most important center of 
Roma music and dance in Turkey and provide world famous artists to the 
international music scene. It is here at Europe?s doors that Roma 
culture?s European and Asian roots really merge together to form the 
fascinating cultural melting pot that Sulukule is. That Sulukule was. 
Because this treasure of Roma culture does not exist anymore. The 
district has been forced to go through a well-designed process driven by 
the Istanbul authorities, in close cooperation with a great number of 
city developers intent on grabbing such a valuable part of the Old City. 
In the 1990s, Sulukule?s world famous entertainment houses were closed, 
the Roma artists pushed into the informal economy. The district 
gradually lost its wealth, housing conditions deteriorated, resulting in 
Sulukule being singled out for urban renewal. In truth, it was singled 
out to disappear altogether.

 

In this episode, again, Mundi Romani gives a voice to the voiceless and 
provides a unique insight into Sulukule?s amazing culture, its people, 
and into the complex mechanisms which are leading, in many places across 
the world, to the disappearance of minority cultures under the sheer 
weight of the power held by city developers and short-sighted public 
officials. An all too common story of cultural destruction at the 
crossroads between Europe and Asia.



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