History
Hamza al-Isfahani wrote about 12,000 musicians from India who was taken by Bahram Gur to Persia, also did Ferdowsi. Evliya Çelebi told that Mehmed II take after 1453 from Balat, Muslim Roma to Istanbul, their descendants became musicians. They spoke only Turkish with very few Romani words in their jargon. They migrated from Anatolia to Marmara region and finally settled in the Balkans at the time of the Ottoman Empire.
Anti-Turko-Romani statement
The Greek Doctor A. G. Paspati made the statement in his book from 1860, that Turks married often Roma women and the Rumelian Romani dialect is nearly lost by the Muslim Turkish Roma, who speak entirely Turkish.
Ernest Gilliat-Smith, explained in 1915, that this Turkish Roma in Bulgaria can not speak Romani language, and compared them with very poor Turks rather than Romani people. The French orientalist Henri Bourgeois referred to the Turkish Roma as Pseudo Roma, especially the newspaper Laço who was published in 1910 by Emin Resa.
Non-Turkish Roma people
Indeed, there are people in Edirne who are not Romani people at all but are still said to be Roma. Their story is as follows: In the Ottoman Empire, some families who saw military service as risky and did not want to send their sons as Soldiers, saw no problem to take a Roma (Coptic) identity for registration their population, because they knew that Roma were not recruited as combatants, until 1874 when equal rights with other Muslims was given for Muslim Roma. These families still continued to appear as Roma in the records. In the past, there were also classified groups of Turks as "Roma" or "Tatars" in Bulgaria.
Settlements and migration
The majority of Turkish Roma live in Turkey, but also significant Turkish Roma communities live in Bulgaria, Greece (Western Thrace), North Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, in lesser case Romania (Dobruja) and Kosovo. In East Thrace -Turkey, they are called Şopar. The meaning of the name comes from the Rumelian Romani and has different meanings.
A small Turkish Roma community live in Dobruja in Romania. They are the descendants of Muslim Roma who intermingled with Turks at the time of Ottoman Empire
Romanian Christian Roma Groups regard them simply as "Turks" and are distinct for them.
In Western Thrace, Greece, in cities like Alexandroupoli (Dedeağaç), Komotini (Gümülcine) and Xanthi (İskeçe) Muslim Roma called Turko-Roma, i.e. such as Sepečides or Sevljara and Kalpazaja who are Turkish speaking.
In Northern Cyprus there are Turkish speaking Roma, who are very close to them in Turkey and West Thrace in Greece.
In Kosovo lives a Turkish Roma community named Divanjoldjije. They are named after there original settlement where they once came from, the Divanyolu Street in Istanbul, and settled in Pristina at the time of the Ottoman Kosovo.
Romanlar in Turkey came to Germany and Austria and other European Countries as Gastarbeiter but they are fully assimilated within the Turks in Europe.
In North Macedonia, in the cities of Skopje, Kočani, Štip, and Veles, North Macedonia, there live Turkish Gypsies. They do not live in Roma quarters but together with the host population. Several families emigrated to Turkey in 1953–1968. They and there descendants are accepted fully as Turks.
Since Bulgaria became Member in the European Union, Turkish Roma from Bulgaria went to West Europe as Workers. Data on the self-Identification of Bulgarian Muslim Roma Youth in Berlin shows they identify as Turkish 97%, while only 3% to be Romani.
At the Greek War of Independence, Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and Balkan Wars (1912–1913), Muslim Roma flee together with other different Muslim Groups to Istanbul and East Thrace, as Muhacir.
At the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, Muslim Turkish Roma from Greece have also been resettled in Turkey. In Turkish, they are called Mübadil Romanlar.
According to the 1925 Convention, between Bulgaria and Turkey, Muslims allowed to leave Bulgaria. A special characteristic example of this are the Turkish Roma of the Veliko Tarnovo district, who
entered in the Bulgarian registers by nationality, "Turks" emigrated to Turkey.
In 1950–1951 Muslim Turkish Roma from Bulgaria came to Turkey and settled in Çanakkale and surroundings.
From 1953 -1968, Turkish Roma from Yugoslavia emigrated to Turkey.
The Xoraxaya, (X as ch in German Achtung), or Muslim Roma from Turkey and southeastern Europe, also came to the USA, where they founded mainly Turkish Roma dance (Roman Havasi) clubs, also they named Turkish Romany.
