Roma people in Turkey

The Xoraxane Roma in Turkey named official since the 1990's in Turkish as Romanlar (singularRoman, male Rom, female Romliye), but other Turkish designations like Cingene (Gypsy), Esmer Vatandas, Kipti and many other names also in use, but some used Cingene, or selfname Manus (Human) and Sopar (Gypsy kid) for themself in East Thrace. In English they are named "Turkish Gypsy". The Word Gypsy is not pejorative for them. There are a number of subgroups, all named after their old professional jobs or only Xoraxane. There Religion is Sunni Muslim of Hanafi school and some are Members of a Sufism Tarika. Engagement's, marriage's, and circumcision of the boys (Sunnet party)'s, are big festivals.
The Roma people in Turkey speak the Turkish language as first language. Most do not speak the Romani language anymore, and many hide there Romani Background designate themselves as Turks only, and didn't want to be call as Roma. The majority live in East Thrace, this is why East Thrace is jokily called Gypsy County (Soparistan), and Citys like Istanbul, Edirne and Izmir. They have Turkish citizenship and adopted the Turkish culture, they havent Romanipen (a special Romani culture-code etc.), like christian roma in europe. The Romanlar from Turkey distance themselves from all other Roma groups from europe, it doesnt matter if they are Christian or Muslims.
The Romanlar are closer to Turks as to any Roma Groups of Europe. They have only a lesser similarity with the Turkish speaking Xoraxane Roma from Bulgaria, Romani (Dobruja) or Greece (West-Thrace). They also havent an Minority status, and they didnt want to be called as Minority. Some of the Turkish Romani came as Guest worker to Germany and Austria in the 1960-70's. None of them was looked as Roma by the Host Population, only as Turks in Germany, where some of the Turkish-Romani Men married with German or Austrian Womans. The Offsprings of this Marriages called Melezi (Halfblood), a Turkish Loanword in the Romani language dialects of the Muslim Roma for people with mixed Romani blood.
In Turkey, the Romanlar do all kind of low Jobs, but also as flower sellers, basketmaker etc.
History
There is recorded by Persian poets and historians in the Shahnameh. According to this records, the Persian king Bahram V of Sassanid Empire, brought several thousand musicians from India to Persia. From Persia, the descendants of the Indian musicians migrated to different countries.
According Ottoman and Turkish historians and linguists, the Romanlar in Turkey are the descendants of mixed Ancestry, the so called Chingan' (Musicans-Dancers), who once came from Hindustan, trough trading relationships at the Silk Road with the Byzantine Empire, from the Indian subcontinent into Egypt, who was at that time a part of the Byzantine Empire. They settled in Koptos (Qift) at the Nile for a while. Later, when the Muslim Arabian made fight with the Byzantine Empire, the Romanlar went with them as Camp followers to Asia Minor and settled first in Phrygia, from there they went to Thrace in Europe at 800 AD. The Greeks called them Atsingani. The oldest sedentary settlment of Romanlar was in Sulukule in Istanbul, dating back to 1054 AD. The Byzantine Historian Nikephoros Gregoras, told of Acrobats who came from Egypt to Constantinople in 1322. The Ottoman Historian Evliya Celebi described in his Book Seyhatname, the language and Background of the Roma people, that after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II settled Roma from Gumulcine and Muslim Roma's from Bayat village Aydin Province and Sanjak of Mentese to Istanbul as Dancers and Musicians. At the time of Ottoman Empire they got their own Sanjak (district) in East Thrace in 1530 by the Order of Suleiman the Magnificent. Turkish speaking Muslim Roma also settled from Anatolia in the Balkans under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Today in Bulgaria, Greece (West-Thrace) and Romania (Dobruja) there live a Turkish speaking Muslim Roma minority. Many Romanlar live in Istanbul , Edirne and Izmir.
Genetic studies showed that Turkish Gypsys have similarity to Jats and Punjabis from Punjab (Pakistan) also Gene flow from Turks and Southeast Europe's people like Slavs, Greeks and Albanians into the Turkish Gypsys population of the Ottoman Empire, happend trough the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Also people from Caucasus Mountains like the Kubachi people
About Paspati in his Book of the Turkish Gypsy's from 1860-1863, he mentioned that Ottoman Turkish Men often married Gypsy woman, and arround 200.000 Muslim Roma live in Turkey. Under the reign of Abdulhamid II, there status was changend and they was named as Bucuk Millet.
At the Greek War of Independence 1821-1829, Crimean War 1853-1856, Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), Balkan Wars 1912-1913, World War I 1914-1918, and the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, many Turkish speaking Xoraxane-Roma together with other Non-Romani Muslims was expelled from Bulgaria and Greece and other parts of the Balkans, who once belonged to the former Ottoman Empire, to settle in Turkey.
After the end of Serfdom-Slavery in Moldova in 1855 and Wallachia in 1856, Orthodox Christian Roma went to Istanbul and named Laxo Roma who speak Vlax Romani language. In 1923 the Laxo went mostly to Greece.
Music and Dance
The Romanlar in Turkey are wellknown of there Music and Dance, and play for Weddings, Sunnet partys and Kirkpinar-Festival (Oil wrestling), also for Non Romani People. Belly dance is performed in there own special style.
Kakava
Kakava is the name of the celebration of there own Male Saint Baba Fingo., its hold every year on 5-6 May at Edirne. Its an old Folk Believe by the Romanlar,
Sufism
Many Romanlar in Turkey belong to the Sufism Hindiler Tekkesi of the Qadiri-Tarika, who was founded in 1738 by Sheykh Seyfullah Efendi El Hindi in Selamsiz, a Romani quarter at Uskudar in Istanbul. He was original a Muslim from Hindustan. Anyway the Romanlar are Muslims, the old Folk believe of Baba Fingo is present.
References
Roma
Ethnic groups in Turkey