I want to share you some of my memories to show you the image of Gypsies in peoples mind. I want you to see and understand this image.
-When i graduated from elementary school i asked one of my teachers who knew and liked me that if it's allowed to marry with Gypsies? "No" he said. "It's not allowed to marry with Gypsies". I was shocked. I couldn't ask him "Why?". Worsely, i couldn't say the girl i loved "I love you".
-When i was a young man, a girl i knew very well killed herself because his family hindered her to marry with her boyfriend. Because he was a Gypsy.
-A well-educated young Gypsy man who i met in 1990s in Edirne was appointed to a village of Lalapaşa district of Edirne as an imam. However villager didn't accept him as their villagers imam because of his origin, because he was a Gypsy.
-It was 20 years. I was together with a group people i met in Ankara Etlik. I told them that i am Gypsy in one of our conversations. However they didn'y believe me. One of them said "You can't be a Gypsy. you don't look like them. They have no education, they are bad people.". An other person said: "You are not a Gypsy. But it's possible that your step mom stole you from a non-Gypsy family". All of them laughed then...
The other one said: "It's also possible that your Gypsy mom fornicated with a non-Gypsy man and so you borned." They laughed again. I felt terrible. I was short of breath...
-13 years ago, i read in a magazine named "Kadınlar". A reporter asked a man named Mustafa in Acarlar town of Aydın if Gypsies lived in the town. The man answered "No". "If they were Gypsy, they shouldn't have any Mosques or Churches in their town because Gypsies have no religion."
This is how the image of Gypsies in peoples mind. And i said if people read carefully holly books and understand basic message of them, everything would be different.
*Mustafa Aksu: Researcher and author
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