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An international group of 40 Roma students launched romareact.org, a new online platform to mobilize Roma communities with a breath taking flashmob where girls and boys strip off stereotypes publicly.
Roma youth had enough of being perceived as beggars, thieves, fortune tellers even though there is an increasing number of Roma graduating from universities.
‘Make the Change!’ is the call to action message of the flash mob, that refers to an urgent need to help Roma raise from poverty and successfully engage with the non-Roma.
They occupied downtown Edirne in Turkey at 1pm last Saturday and set up the first Roma flash mob ever in the history of the country.
The crowd got frozen too, it was something they have never seen before. Roma belly dancers, fortune tellers, beggers and an alcoholic invading the crowd suddenly get frozen. Music unfreezes them again and then they change into lawyers, nurses, engineers showcasing through their own personal stories the need to make a change.
Reactors —as ERGO Network in charge of the initiative calls the young agents of change— also want to demonstrate the struggle the educated young Roma have for being different in both the Roma as well as the non-Roma world.
RomaReact.org is celebrating the success of the young educated Roma by setting up events in their own communities and providing international visibility for them.
Declaring of the demolition of the Roma settlement, which is across Elmas Garden Inn Otel in Erenler district of Sakarya (Marmara, Turkey), in an interview maden with the mayor Cavit Öztürk by a web page worried the Roma residents of the neighbourhood. The residents hope authorities to make an explanation to them about the issue and consider their expectations about the demolition which will directly influence them.
The web page named SakaryaRehberim.com made an interview with Erenler Mayor Cavit Öztürk about the general issues of the district. When the journalist ask to the mayor about the claims that the Roma neighbourhood create visual pollution, the Mayor Öztürk said that there will be an urban reneval project soon. The journalist again asked where the Roma residents of the neighbourhood will go after demolition. The mayor said he can’t say anything certain about the question but he is resolute about demolition of the neighbourhood which is irritating according to him.
Using arguments like “visual pollution” to legitimize urban reneval project get reaction from the citizens primarily Roma who are mostly being influenced by the projects. People are being upset when their house, in which they live because of obligation, are being humiliated with these kind of arguments. They say that nobody will accept their houses to be defined as a kind of pollution regardless of the condition with which they are built. The Roma residents say that they also want to live under better housing conditions. However they never want their neighbourhood to be scattered.
The houses rent by the Roma families, whose former houses in Küçükbakkalköy-İstanbul (Turkey) were also demolished, in Emek neighbourhood of Ataşehir district were demolished. Almost 10 Roma families who subsist on flower-selling and paper-scrap collecting are obliged to live in tents from now on. It’s claimed that the houses rent by Roma were demolished on account of the fact that non-Roma residents around complained Roma families to the municipality.
The historical Roma settlement Küçükbakkalköy was evicted with consecutive demolitions which started in 2006. Most of the Roma families who had lived there before the evictions went to the other Roma settlements like Alemdağ Nişantepe, Ümraniye, Sancaktepe, Dudullu around the district or pitched tents wherever it’s possible. Ten of them rent booths which built before by non-Roma settlements on an area owned by the municipality in Emek neighbourhood of Ataşehir in 2010. They rent the houses according to formal conditions.
A notification ordering Roma families to leave the houses was sent them in last June. It’s claimed that non-Roma residents complained Roma families to municipality and ask them to evict Roma from the district. Then Roma were given only a short time to leave the houses. The owners of the houses were also informed about the situation and the possible demolition. Demolition started in June 30 and continued for three days. Roma families who were not offered any other place in which they can live are trying to live in tents they pitched on the salvage of their former houses. Some of them refuged to their relatives living in the other Roma settlements.
>Accepting of compaints of non-Roma residents as a legitimate reason to evict Roma in some current cases of demolitions worry Roma families. Once upon a time they were living together in their own Roma neighbourhoods. However these big Roma settlements were evicted and most of the Roma families have to live closer to non-Roma. So living together with non-Roma is their own chose but obligation. Roma families say that they are not against urban renewal but they hope authorities to be much more sensible about their situation.
Roma living in İpsala district of Edirne (Thracia region of Turkey) take to the road to subsist when it is summer. Roma living in İpsala, whose traditional occupations primarily tin-smithing dissappeared long time ago, work as agricultural workers under extremly hard circumstances.
When it is summer, some of the Roma in İpsala go to Bolayır town of Gelibolu to carry hay bales. Some other go to Sütlüce village of Gelibolu to collect tomato. There are some others who go to the villages of Malkara district of Tekirdağ to carry hay bales.
Roma of İpsala, who leave their own houses to go to the agricultural areas, live in traditional tents there. They had used these tents, when they subsisted on tin-smithing. They place a branch longer than 2 metres which has a prong edge to the floor to pitch a tent. Then, they attach an other branch to it diagonally and put a canvas maden by beemax on the brances. There are also some Roma families who built shacks using nylon besides the ones who pitch tents. The most important problem of the families living in tents was the lack of healthy toilets and baths until this year. The mobile toilets given by the municipality minimize the problem this year.
Roma agricultural workers coming from İpsala to carry hay bales face bad working conditions. Workers start to work at 06.00 o’clock in the job in which only men can work because of the conditions. Workers who entruck hay bales to bogies are being paid for each bale 80 kuruş. Sometimes, Roma work until 03.00. Men and women go together to collect tomato. They are being paid daily generally. They mostly work between 08.00-17.00.
Roma in İpsala take to the road for the bread similar to many the Thracian Roma when it is summer. Their common expectation is the compulsory nomadism to be ended.
The photo exhipition of photograph artist Engin Güneysu named “Dönüşüm (Renewal), in which experiences of Roma living in Samsun during the urban renewal are being documented, will start in Canik Cultural Center in 2012, June 29, Friday at 15.00. Samsun Roma will show great interest to the exhibition of Engin Güneysu, who made a contribution to an important part of Roma history in Samsunto be documented with the photos he took in the Roma neighbourhood named 200 Evler.
The Roma peas workers, who go to Karacabey district of Bursa (Marmara Region-Turkey) to gather peas, work under extremely hard conditions. Almost 1000 Roma live in tents when they are in Karacabey as if they are forced nomads.
Roma families, who come from Keşan district of Edirne, Malkara district of Tekirdağ and settlements around Balıkesir to Karacabey district of Bursa each year, subsist on peas croping in the agricultural lands of the district. Roma agricultural workers, who pitch tents in the area given by the municipality, give earnest money to the dragomans who mediate among workers and land owners. Most of the workers become indebted to the mediators because they don’t have any chance to give them earnest money. Travel and food expenses are also being covered by the workers. Roma agricultural workers whose incomes are only enough to cover travel and food expenses remain due to the mediator when they turn to their homes.
Each Roma family work in a small agricultural land in Karacabey. They arrive to the lands after a long journey of 20 km with bogies from the area they pitch their tents. Some workers crop peas using a tool named “kavrama” and they left peas there. Then an other group of workers named direncis come and burden peas to bogies or tractor trailers. The workers who crop peas take daily wage for each decare and the derincis take money for each bogies or tractor trailers to which they burden peas. Women also work in peas cropping. However only men work as direncis beause it requires physical power.
The municipality sets up mobile toilets and mobile baths to area in where Roma families pitch their tents. However especially women are unable to use these mobile toilets and mobile baths. Because there are too many people almost everytime. Women try to clean themselves in their own tents as much as it’s possible.
The new combine harvesters are being started to be used in the big agricultural lands of Karacabey. This situation reduced demand to agricultural workers. Roma peas workers can work less than they can before because of the technological development. Most of the families working in the district are afraid of the possibility that the situation will go from bad to worse next year.
Roma children who are on the ropes in their tents when their families go to the agricultural lands face with various threats. The child of a Roma family whose tent was pitched close to the carriage way had a wreck and died when his family was in the agricultural land. All of the families who are being obligated to leave their chilren alone in their tents are worrying to feel the same pain again.
Roma families in extreme poverty continue to come and work under hard conditions in Karacabey district of Bursa. Because they have no other ways to survive and they have no hope about the future.
The governor of İstanbul Hüseyin Avni Mutlu who visited the public foundations which are still being built in Kağıthane district also made a conversation with Roma living in Yahya Kemal neighbourhood of Kağıthane. The governor, who were welcomed by the community leader of Yahya Kemal Roma Cemil Akmaca and the other residents, listened the problems of local Roma community.
The governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu visited Merkez Grade School, Hacı Ethem Uktem Grade School, İmece Grade School, Atatürk Grade School, Kağıthane Board of Trade Grade School and Yahya Kemal Sport Center and got information about the situation of buildings. He was also informed about the housing problem of local Roma community by the residents who welcomed him. Roma living in Yahya Kemal neighbourhood, who explained that they live in unsound structures under terrible conditions around the neighbourhood, said that a new Roma neighbourhood which will be built in the district will be a certain solution for their housing problem. The governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu said that TOKİ (Mass Housing Administration) can build mass housing for Roma with suitable conditions in the district. He offered to the residents to collect signatures and to apply to the governorship about the issue. The governor had many souvenir photos taken with Roma living in the district before he left the district.
Balıkesir Roma Festival, which is organized with contribution of Balıkesir (Turkey) governorship and the parlamentarian Edip Uğur, is celebrated enthusiastically. Hundreds of Roma participated to the festival besides the governor Yılmaz Arslan, the city security director Ömer Aydın, represantatives of various political parties, represantetives of Roma associations from Balıkesir, Adana, Kocaeli, İzmir.
The festival which started with opening statements continued with concerts and performances of musicians liked by Roma like Tüdanya, Sinan Zorbey and Cancağızım Dance Group. The governor an the city security director were called to the scene. They were given flowers for their contributions to the festival on behalf of local Roma population. The governor Yılmaz Arslan said that they will continue to support activities of local Roma community.
Broom, tin benchs and drum stands exhibited in the festival aroused interest.
Budapest, Istanbul, 13 June 2012: An Istanbul court ruled yesterday in favour of the cancellation of the urban renovation project targeting Sulukule, the oldest Romani settlement in Europe, in an ERRC supported case. The 4th Administrative Court of Istanbul established that the Fatih Municipality’s Sulukule project is “not in the public interest”. There were three separate cases litigated by the Istanbul Chamber of Architects, the Istanbul Chamber of City Planners and the Sulukule Roma Association. The ERRC initiated and supported the Sulukule Roma Association’s case.
The Court found the Municipality’s project to be in violation of Law no. 5366 on the ”Preservation by Renovation and Utilisation by Revitalising of Deteriorated Immovable Historical and Cultural Properties” as well as UNESCO’s criteria on preservation of historical heritage.
The urban renewal project at Sulukule was first launched in 2005 and saw Romani families forced to sell their homes at low prices and move far from the city centre to make way for expensive luxury developments. Almost 3,500 Romani residents previously lived in Sulukule, and saw their homes demolished.
The text of the judgment has not yet been handed down, but according to the lawyers involved in the case and media reports, the Municipality can appeal the decision. However, within one month of the ruling being communicated Fatih Municipality should stop implementation of the current project, and develop and implement a new project in line with Court’s ruling. If the Municipality fails to implement the Court’s ruling, compensation claims can be pursued.
The ERRC has been actively involved in efforts to preserve Sulukule, reacting as soon as planning for the urban renovation project began. The ERRC met with Fatih Municipality officials and sent letters to authorities including the Prime Minister’s office, to remind them of Turkey’s obligations under domestic and international law. On 31 December 2007, the ERRC initiated and supported litigation by the Sulukule Roma Association before the Istanbul Administrative Court, requesting immediate suspension of the demolition campaign in Sulukule and cancellation of Fatih Municipality’s renovation project. Since then, the homes of many Roma and the historic neighbourhood, a recognised a world heritage site, have been demolished. However the ERRC welcomes the decision from the Istanbul Court as vindicating the protests by Roma and the international community against the illegality of the Municipality’s action and opening the opportunity to redress the harms inflicted on affected Roma.
14 Roma have been employed as music master as a result of joint work of Bursa Governorship and Bursa Roma Association. The president of Bursa Roma Association Efkan Özçimen said that they will try to improve the project in the upcoming days. Roma who are employed within the scope of the Public Education Center are happy that they have had a regular job with social security.
Roma musicians employed within the scope of the Public Education Center started to teach in public schools. It’s said that students are pleased with the lessons given by Roma musicians. Roma musicians who learned the art in their family from their parents endear students to the music and they prod them to play an instrument.
Roma musicians who are employed as music master said that they got to give up music due to the problems they face in recent years. Technological instruments gum most of the musical instruments up. This situation cause many Roma musicians to be unemployed. Decreasing of traditional weddings is an other reason of the problems Roma musicians face. Supporting projects are so important for Roma musician who have difficulties to remain their craft under these circumstances.
SULUKULE: Kimin için dönüşüm?/ Transformation for whom?
Özet: 2006 yılında ‘Kentsel Dönüşüm’ projesi kurbanı olan Sulukule, İstanbul’da 1000 yıllık geçmişi olan bir mahalle. Çoğunluğu Roman olan ve evleri belediye tarafından hukuksuzca yıkılan mahalle sakinleri, 40 km ötedeki Taşoluk’ta TOKİ’nin inşa ettiği evlerden satın almak zorunda bırakıldı. Ev sahibi olma umuduyla oraya mecburen taşınan kiracılar hüsrana uğradılar. Neredeyse tamamı taksitlerini ödeyemeyip eskisinden çok daha zor şartlarda Sulukule yakınlarına geri döndü, Taşoluk’ta kalan birkaç aile ise zar zor orada tutunmaya çalışıyor. 1000 yıllık mahallenin yerinde ise bugün zenginlerin lüks villaları yükseliyor. Bu dönüşümden kim karlı çıktı?
Synopsis In 2006, The 1000-year-old neighborhood of Sulukule in Istanbul was the victim of ‘Urban Transformation’. The residents, most of whom were Roma, had their houses demolished illegally and were forced to buy TOKI’s social housing apartments in Taşoluk, 40 km away from their neighborhood. Hoping to own a house, the tenants reluctantly accepted to move there. The majority who couldn’t afford the installments moved back to areas near Sulukule. The ones remaining in Taşoluk can barely manage. Today fancy villas of the rich have replaced the 1000-year old neighborhood. Who has profited from this transformation?
Yapımcı/Producer: Imre Azem Yönetmen/Director: Nejla osseiran Kurgu/Editor: Mesut Ulutaş Yapım/Production: Kibrit Film Müzik/Music: Ozan Türkyılmaz & Barış Yerli Süre/Running time: 8’ Yılı/Year: 2012
The Roma community in Turkey is beset with widespread unemployment, illiteracy, housing problems and poverty that account for their general marginalisation in society.
A dramatic improvement was achieved for them two years ago when the ruling AK Party initiated a dialogue between government officials and Roma representatives. The talks involved a significant number of Roma throughout Turkey, with officials listening to their problems and proposing solutions aimed at effectively integrating them into society.
Though the Roma community has become more accepted, gained more visibility and received improved socio-economic opportunities since then, more work remains.
Topping the list of concerns are the low level of schooling and the resulting illiteracy in the community. It is estimated that only 30% of Roma in Turkey are literate.
Sabahattin Agacbuken, a Roma resident in Istanbul’s Dolapdere district and the founding member of Istanbul Roma Federation, spoke with SETimes about the main reasons behind the alarming illiteracy numbers.
“Our kids cannot attend schools, because the Roma in Istanbul are working daily to make ends meet. They earn a bit of money and give a big part of it for rent. So they cannot afford to send children to schools under such circumstances. I wonder why our governors have not yet tried to find a solution for this core problem.”
Vural Azuyar, a shoe-shiner of Kurdish-origin whose wife is Roma, agreed.
Azuyar adds that the Roma children do not even try learning a craft or such skills that would keep them from getting involved in smuggling and other illegal money-making ways.”We should not underestimate that these children have been raised in families in which no one also went to school. Their families did not try to establish contacts outside their communities, not caring about learning writing and reading, but lived in their own communities. So, their children see no problem in giving up education. Their families don’t expect them to learn reading and writing, but to earn money as soon as possible.”
The Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Security has initiated programmes to employ thousands of Roma in the labour market.
Another setback among the Roma in Turkey comes from limitations of current NGOs to claim Roma rights — in education, employment, and social programme participation. Lack of unity among the Roma themselves is another reason for the failure to achieve certain goals in improving the daily lives of the Roma community. Currently, 130 associations and 11 federations throughout the country are working on Roma social integration and cultural preservation.
New houses will be built for 17 Gypsy families, whose tents burned in a fire broke out last june in Altınoluk, in Küçüksu Neighbourhood. It’s being planned to complete new houses, which will be built adding second storey to the current houses in Küçüksu neighbourhood, as soon as possible. There are so many families who have to live in tents even in metropolitan cities.
The fire broke out as a result of gas tube explosion caused tents of 17 Gypsy families living in Altınoluk to become unuseable. The families who have lived in new tents given to them by The Red Crescent will move to the new houses in Küçüksu whenever they are built.
Some citizens live in tents on account of the fact that their subsistence ways force them to be on the move continually. Especially citizens who subsist on basket making, sieve making or peddling live in tents in places they go to sell their goods. Some other citizens are obligated to live in tents because their houses were demolished by authorities without offering them an other place to live in. Winter brings them hard times each year. These people hope authorities to prepare suitable buildings for them in where they could live in especially in winters.