The Romani people in Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye'deki Romanlar). There are many subgroups, the majority group are the Şoparlar, who live in East Thrace. All subgroups in Turkey have in common, that they are Sunni muslims and speak Turkish.
There are officially about 500,000 Romani in Turkey
There are records of the presence of the Romani people from AD 800 in Thrace, known in Greek as Athinganoi and in Turkish as Çingene. The Romanlar in Turkey have their own oral tradition, according to which their Ancestors, once came as Traders from different parts of India and Pakistan as well. They arrived at the time of the Indo-Roman trade relations, to Egypt (Roman province), and settled arround the Red Sea coast. From there they went to Arabian Peninsula, to Mesopotamia, to Persia to Lesser Caucasus to East Anatolia. With the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, Romani settled in Rumelia (southeastern Europe) under Ottoman rule. The name Roman/Romanlar came from the Turkish Doğu Roman İmparatorluğu (eastern Roman empire). Sulukule in Istanbul is the oldest Romani settlement in Europe, recorded in 1054. The majority of the Romani people in Turkey live in East Thrace, Marmara Region and Aegean Region. Uniquely in Ottoman history, the Muslim Romani people were given their own sanjak, or province, the sanjak of Vize. Romani people in Turkey speak Turkish as their first language, and no longer use Romani. They often marry non-Romani.
The descendants of the Ottoman Romani today are known as Muslim Roma. They are of Sunni Islamic faith of Hanafi madhab, and practise male Khitan (circumcision). In Edirne, the Kakava festival is held every year.
In modern Turkey, Xoraxane Romani do not have a legal status of ethnic minority because they are traditionally adherents of the Islamic faith, adherents of which, regardless of ethnicity or race, are considered part of the ethnic majority in Turkey. This goes as far back as the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), in which Section III "Protection of Minorities" put an emphasis on non-Muslim minorities. A group of Turkish Romani appears in the 16th century Ottoman Constantinople of the video game Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
Notable people
Sibel Can, Turkish folk pop and classical music singer
Didem, Turkish belly dancer, model and singer
Kibariye, Turkish Arabesque-pop singer
Özcan Purçu, Turkish politician
Hüsnü Şenlendirici, Turkish musician
Selim Sesler, Turkish clarinet virtuoso of Romani heritage
Ankaralı Turgut, Turkish musician
Rafet el Roman , Turkish Popstar
