Carta aberta de Elizabeth Artemis Mourat, MA, MSW, LCSW-C:
Dear Friends,
I am writing to tell you about some human rights violations that are being committed against the Romani (Gypsy) communities in Turkey. Unfortunately, this is not a new situation - only the geographic locations change. The Roma have been evicted from their neighborhoods (mahalles) in many countries: Spain, Bosnia and Kosovo, to name a few. It begins with an “official” declaration about their housing but the goal and end results are to force the Roma to leave the area.
In the Sulukule neighborhood of Istanbul, where the Roma have lived for 1000 years, their homes are in danger of demolition. Many of them lack the proper documentation to prove their rights to their property despite their having occupied that property for generations. These people are impoverished and many are illiterate so it is difficult if not impossible for them to access proper legal counsel. Their electricity and water have been turned off and their children cannot attend school because of these residency issues. If you want to learn more about this situation and Romani history in Istanbul, you can read below. This sad situation is also being repeated in other parts of Turkey.
If you feel moved to do something to help, I have two suggestions for you. You can write to the Roma directly and express your concerns for them welfare. You can also send emails to some municipal officials (and also send a copy to the Roma). Do not include my email but rather write to them independently so that they will see that the support is far reaching and not specific to any one person’s email list.
If you want to write to the Roma, here are some good addresses for you:
Sulukule Roma Culture Development and Solidarity Association
sulukuleliler@ gmail.com
Roma_in_Turkey@yahoogroups.com
Roma Virtual Network at: romale@zahav. net.il
If you want to write to the agencies, here are some addresses and suggestions for you:
Try to be brief, dignified and respectful. You can write that you are aware of the situation, how you feel and/or what you think about it. Tell them that you support the idea of preserving this historic region and bolstering the Roma in their efforts to regain their autonomy via decent housing, a Romani heritage center where they can teach Romani arts and crafts, an equestrian center and avenues for performances for tourists. Include what country you are writing from and any academic credentials or titles you may have. Thank them for their time and consideration.
Mustafa Demir , the president of the Fatih Municipality basinyayin@fatih.bel.tr
Erdogan Bayraktar , the Presidency of the Social Housing Administration
(He has no email)
Postal address:
Erdogan Bayraktar
Basbakanlik
Toplu Konut Idaresi
Baskanligi
Bilkent Plaza B1 Blok 06800
Bilkent , Ankara
Turkey
Thank you very much;
Elizabeth Artemis Mourat, MA, MSW, LCSW-C
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Para conhecer melhor a história desta região e a luta desta comunidade, eis o press release de pedido de ajuda da Associação de Solidariedade e Desenvolvimento da Cultura Romani Sulukule
Subject: Demolition of Sulukule
Sulukule Roma Culture Development and Solidarity Association.
Initially posted at the International Debate Education Association (idw.idebate.org/roma/countryarticles.php )
Roma in Istanbul: Sulukule Press Release
Roma_in_Turkey@yahoogroups.com, 27.06.2006
We, the 3,500 Romani people of these mahalles of Neslisah and Hatice Sultan in the municipality of Fatih, Istanbul wish to tell you about the circumstances affecting our historic community as a result of the municipality's project to “renew the city”. This project will result in the demolition of this historic neighborhood, and destroy the Romani community that lives here.
In October 2005 the local authority considered measures to redevelop the area, but from a range of choices they adopted the decision to demolish the existing housing, where large numbers of Romani people have lived for centuries since their first arrival in this area in the eleventh century. This decision was adopted without consultation with the community, nor any of the community representatives nor indeed the cooperation of the all parties represented on the local municipality. The decision is one that neither reflects the result of any feasibility study carried out by the municipal authorities and made public, nor seems based upon careful research about the possible options and implications of any measures to redevelop the area. Since this decision was taken, there have been a number of meetings between members of the community and the municipality, but without any resolution to the concerns raised by the Romani people for their future. The planned program of demolition remains in place and work is expected to begin in September, when bulldozers will move in to the area.
The community of the Sulukule mahalles (Neslisah and Hatice Sultan), are the descendants of Romani people that arrived a thousand years ago in the then Byzantine capital, Constantinople. Their presence is recorded in sources that tell us that they lived in black tents, practicing fortune-telling, bear leading and music and dance for the residents of the city. Whilst the bear-leading and fortune-telling are a thing of the past these days, the music and dance remain part of the Romani culture that is still a vibrant and essential expression of Romani identity here. When the city fell to the Ottoman conquerors in 1453, it was the Sulukule Gate that first was breached, and many of the canons and other artillery were forged by the contingents of Romani metal-workers and smiths of the Ottoman army. This area, and its association with Romani communities through history is the reason why the community is asking for the decision to demolish the area to be rescinded, and a program of regeneration and urban renewal be considered instead. This area represents the oldest Romani community in the world, with the most consistent occupation by Romani people in a tradition that stretches back through time to the earliest days of Romani history.
It is also the history of Romani people that is in this particular instance, concrete and palpable. So often the history of the Romani people has remained unrecorded or unrecognized except for the odd reference in non-Romani sources to their presence in cities and towns, to their occupations and trades in the streets and countryside, and to their persecution in punitive laws and ordinances that in some places and times meant appalling punishment or even death was meted out for the crime of merely being a “Gypsy”. The Romani history of Sulukule remains to be further researched and written, but it is there in the actual buildings, streets and stones of the area, and in the faces of the people who live there. Their stories, and the stories of their families that go back generations are the history of the area in their physical forms, in the human presence of the “Egyptians” of the past, and the Romanies of the present.
The community has been offered the opportunity to receive small compensation for their loss of home and shelter, but the cost of buying new property, even for those that own their current abode is prohibitive in the new apartment blocks that the developers will erect. The question of title deeds and legal claims to these properties also raises problems, as many of the families that live in the area have none, and is very similar to these problems that have arisen in Serbia, Bosnia and elsewhere in south eastern and central Europe when Romani communities have been threatened with removal. The community has organized a new foundation to represent them and speak with a certain voice, and it is their desire to see this lack of title and deeds addressed, and to see the renewal of their community, not its destruction.
With careful consultation and planning the possibilities exist to see the improvement of the area and its growth as a heritage center for both Romani and non-Romani audiences alike, offering traditional Romani music and dance, and new opportunities for employment and training. The establishment of an equestrian center, for example, that could provide stabling for the animals currently in the area, work for stable hands and trainers, transport for the tourists in the city that could experience riding in a phaeton through the old historic centers of Istanbul, and pony trekking into the Belgrade forest could all go towards regenerating an area in need of such opportunities, and the training of young Romani people in such would allow them to develop skills and experiences that have been part of the Romani way of life for centuries. The future development of horse-drawn transport, not merely for the tourist trade but also as an environmentally friendly approach to the movement of people in the city (in horse-drawn trams for example), could bring opportunities for developing self-sufficiency and economic viability in ways that were sustainable. Such ideas could be the beginnings of a discussion about the community and its future that would provide a more harmonious resolution to the current situation.
Support for such regeneration and urban renewal must come from the municipality and their efforts to secure funds for such initiatives from the EU. Such initiatives could also develop model working practices and approaches that placed Istanbul at the forefront of community partnership programs, providing an example that could be followed throughout Turkey and Europe. Establishing a continuing dialogue with the people of Sulukule, developing consultative practices that demonstrate consensual processes in the management of planning, renewal and regeneration could demonstrate to all the benefits of such a program and such an approach.
The social and health problems that are part of the daily struggle for Romani families in this community are in need of urgent measures to alleviate them - poverty is a reality for the majority of the residents and since the closure of the music and entertainment establishments in the area in the last ten years, the impact upon the community has immeasurably increased these problems. Less than one in ten of the adult population has any kind of work on a regular basis, and none have secure employment that would provide security for their families. Employment is a problem because of the wide-spread stigmatization of the community and its inhabitants. The lack of sufficient documentation means that most of the residents are not able to secure the so-called “green card” that would entitle them to basic state support and health-care. Schooling is also an issue that needs addressing; the levels of basic education are minimal and further education almost entirely absent. Those very few Romani people that can gain an education and find themselves in employment often choose to remove themselves from the community and not to disclose their heritage as Romani people at all. They become divorced from their past and are lost to the community as positive role models and examples. Addressing this educational disadvantage in the Sulukule community could begin to tackle some of these problems and provide the opportunity for individuals to develop as productive and engaged citizens of the city and the country.
No other Romani community in the world has the cultural inheritance that stems from the long, continuous past that is part of Sulukule. This area is the very heart of the emergence of Romani people when the so-called “Egyptians” arrived from the east in the eleventh-century. It is an important heritage for all Romani people throughout the world, and as such we are asking for your support in helping us maintain and improve that heritage, in renewing and regenerating the area. The “long march west” for the Romani people begins with their arrival here and the coming together of different elements that formed the very first “Egyptians”. To achieve the recognition of this importance and to secure the future of the Sulukule community and help preserve its past, we ask you to send us messages of support as individuals and organizations of Romani people, and people concerned with improving their condition and circumstances. We ask that all of those who work with Romani communities, helping and supporting them in the continuing process of achieving equality and reaching our potential, recognize our need for support and encouragement in presenting our case against the removal and destruction of our homes and lives, and help us improve both.
We invite you to attend a press conference about the situation where we can speak in person and bring you into our community to see for yourselves the problems and the potential that exists. The event is scheduled for 12.00 on the 28.06.06, in the vicinity of the Edirne Kap on the land walls of Istanbul. If you are unable to be there, please send your messages of support to us so that we may share these with others.
Thank you.
Hacer Foggo
hacerfoggo@gmail.com
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Carta aberta de Sukru Punduk, nascido a 1/1/1968 em Sulukule, que vive em Edirnekapi Kaleboyu Cad. Zuhuri Sok. No: 5. :
The people in neighborhood began to settle in the quarter around 1054 in Byzantium times. After the arrival of the Ottomans in 1453, the Roma community remained there and many of the Romani people passed through to Europe from Sulukule. The neighborhood is next to the historical city walls in the district of Fatih. There are approximately 3500 Romani people living in the neighbourhood, which was approximately 10.000 before the forced eviction policy of the Fatih municipality began in 1992. The municipality suddenly closed down the music and entertainment venues, arguing that they were not paying the entertainment taxes and that they could not organize such entertainment in this neighborhood. However, we were supposed to be the tax ‘champions’ (i.e. paid the most in taxes) since we were paying the entertainment taxes without receiving the tax boards (the official document testifying to the payment of taxes given by the authorities). Therefore the people living in the neighborhood became unemployed and thus became unable to pay their electricity, water and heating expenses and the neighborhood is not able to receive such services. Now the municipality of Fatih is determined to demolish our houses for which we have registry records in hand received in 1983 and 1984 with the imar affi, the period when all illegal building could be registered and granted an amnesty, thus legalizing their status by payment of their land values. These events, should be considered as a part of a conscious process of removal of Romani communities from the city center. We, the Romani people living in Sulukule are suffering from the abuse of our basic rights such as property rights, our right to have a decent job and our right to access clean water and electricity.
The number of houses to be demolished is around 571, which is around 8000 square meters in total. We have read in the newspapers and seen on the TVs that the municipality has a development plan for the neighborhood. Therefore we asked for a meeting with the Mayor of Fatih municipality, Mustafa Demir. We were 17 people from the neighborhood in November 2005, who met with the mayor. 251 people were landowners and 320 are tenants at that moment. The Mayor said that the houses in the neighborhood are going to be demolished and this area was declared as an area of urban renewal. He offered new houses to the tenants without going through the usual ‘lottery’ for public housing that exists here in Turkey, in Tasoluk, which is around 2.5 hours from the city near by Gaziosmanpasa. The houses in Tasoluk are going to be built by the Prime Ministry Housing Development Administration, known as TOKI in Turkish However, it is not certain what the cost of the new houses will be, and therefore we do not know how we are going to be supposed to pay the rent. On the other hand, the occupations that people living in Sulukule can no longer be practiced in these houses which will result in the burden of an unknown time of rent payment under unemployment. The Mayor offered two options. Firstly, this was to buy their lands based on an uncertain amount of money per square meter. The second option was to offer houses to be paid for over 15 years after deducting the land value. Our problem is the uncertainty of the situation. There is no concrete project or prices to be offered for our lands and therefore we are unable to decide what to do. We have offered the municipality to build our own houses and to develop a common project. But the municipality has refused our proposal.
Afterwards the municipality sent us individual invitations in July 2006, to explain the situation that we have spoken about before. They based their argument on the decision of Council of Ministers, which asks to determine the urban renovation areas, under the law number 5366. They declared that towards the end of August 2006 we will receive the demolition decisions. So far none of the people from the neighborhood have received any declaration, however there is an important concern within the neighborhood considering the fact that there is no concrete solution to the problem and that there are serious demolitions taking place in Kucukbakkalkoy and Yahya Kemal Romani neighborhoods of Istanbul. In these neighborhoods the municipalities are demolishing houses for which there are registry records and not offering any solution aside from forcing these people to live in their own ruins.
We, the people living in Sulukule, do not want to leave our houses. In 1960s people from Sulukule were forced to go to Gaziosmanpasa. There is a Romani community living at this neighbourhood under the threat of demolition from Gaziosmanpasa municipality. Therefore forced migration is not the solution to the urban renewal project. We are asking not to be removed or to be forced to live in apartments, which we are not used to. We are willing to keep on living with our instruments, dance and music in the neighbourhood where our ancestors settled a thousand years ago. We do not want to see ourselves as excluded people from the community, neither we are willing to migrate from our lands. Therefore we are asking from organizations and individuals to support us in our struggle against this process of forced migration. We demand lawyers and journalists to come and see the situation and document what we are living.
We will appreciate organizations in Europe or elsewhere to send questions about this situation in Sulukule to Turkish embassies and consulates abroad. We would also highly appreciate your letters of support to our community to feel that we are not alone in this struggle and that the solidarity among people is possible.
Sulukule Romani Culture Solidarity and Development Association
President
Sukru Punduk
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