I was knowing Gypsies have been excluded as i faced exclusion when i was a child and teenager. I was sorry for the situation. After years, i saw that there are unfair charges against us in dictionaries published by public foundations, encyclopedias, books of scholars and even in some laws...
Some text including discriminative speech were deleted from the dictionaries with my long termed legal struggle.
This was a great success for our people. However, to overcome prejudices targesting Gypsies with education is much more important.
I am giving lectures, participating panels or tv programs on the purpose of overcoming prejudices against my people. I am writing books, some of my articles are being published on web pages... I am happy. I will try to do my best although i am an old man now. I contacted with educated Gypsies to reach my purpose more easily. I met prime ministers, scholars, bureaucrats, musicians with Gypsy origin as a result of my researches all over Turkey.
When i announced names of 27 famous Gypsy, 3 of them (one of them was a former minister and the others were musicians) got angry with me. They made statements on press. They blamed me to revile them. Being Gypsy was a fault for them. They threatened me to file a claim against me. There have been 4 years since that time. They haven't filed any claim against me.
My aim was not to revile them. I want to dignify them announcing their Gypsy origin. I want to warn people having prejudices about Gypsy and stop discrimination. Gypsy is not an adjective. Gypsy is the name of our ethnical identity. Claiming someone to be Gypsy is not a revilement.
One of the famous musicians protested me sending a letter notarized. An other one participated a tv program on ATV channel. He said: "I am not a Gypsy or Roma. Gypsy have no identification cards, they are not enrolled in the armed services. Our family origin is so clear, there is no doubt. My father is a retired captain. So we are not Gypsy, we don't want to be Gypsy."
First of all, a person, who is not enregistered to birth registration office when he borns, doesn't have any identification whether or not he is a Gypsy. Gypsies have identification cards if they are enregistered to birth registration office. There is no Gypsy who desert. Gypsy children are sent to army with musical enstruments.
Secondly, place where you born and your ' job or status is not a sign for your ethnic origin. You have to respect all kind of ethnic origins.
I borned in Düzce. I was an official in State Railways. I lived in Ankara. I have a marriage for 56 years. I was in the army as a reserve officer. And i am a Gypsy without any doubt. So what?
People have to change their mentality. Everybody have to say that it's not important to be a Gypsy or not to be.
*Mustafa Aksu: Researcher and author
irtibat: aksumustafa@gmail.com
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