Sukulule: i bulldozer turchi spianano 1000 anni di storia Rom.
Un mese fa, l'intero quartiere di Sukulule, storico insediamento Rom di Istanbul sin dal 1054, è stato raso al suolo.
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May 19, 2009
AFP News Briefs List
Turkish bulldozers raze 1,000 years of Rom history
Turkish bulldozers raze 1,000 years of Rom history
by Nicolas Cheviron
Ferdi Celep sat on a sofa surrounded by the debris of his life, watching city workers empty clothes and furniture from a row of two dozen colourful houses huddled against the Byzantine battlements of Istanbul's old city.
Within hours, the last remnants of a thousand years of Rom history were wiped out by bulldozers.
Anti-riot police supervised this final phase last week of the demolition of Sulukule, a neighborhood on the European bank of Istanbul once home to a vibrant community of musicians and artists whose rhythmic songs and belly dancing served as the city's musical heart.
Similar scenes have been repeated across the country as municipalities, supported by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), drive home a programme of urban renewal, destroying ramshackle and often unsanitary housing in favour of new tower blocks, often many kilometers (miles) outside localities.
But the demolition of Sulukule caused controversy as it razed an ancient community of Rom gypsies who can trace their history in the suburb back to Byzantine times.
"A big thank you to the municipality," said Celep, who is unemployed.
"Thanks to them I will sleep on the street with my wife, my new-born child and the four-year-old. We have no where to go."
City officials in the Fatih district, run by mayor Mustafa Demir from the AKP, estimate the project will relocate about 3,500 people from Sulukule -- 1,300 of them Roms -- and replace their old housing with fancy, wood-panelled "Ottoman style" buildings.
The demolition, begun at the end of 2006, will wipe out "hovels you wouldn't dump coal in," according to the mayor.
However local activist Hacer Foggo of a group called the Sulukule Platform estimates that closer to 5,000 people, the bulk of them members of the minority, are being displaced, and all to benefit the ruling party and its allies.
"Who is going to buy the houses that they will build here? It will be the profiteers, those close to the AKP," she said. "The idea is to expel the poor from the city centre and put the rich in their place."
Turkish media reported a few months ago that several AKP members and figures close to the party were allegedly among the prospective buyers of the new houses.
Foggo said the resettlement will break up a community that has survived through centuries thanks to a tradition of solidarity and mutual aid.
"Here at least everyone knew each other, the rent was very low and the local grocer always gave you credit," she added.
Sulukule welcomed generations of residents from other parts of Istanbul who came for music, booze and belly dancing before a ban in the 1990s by conservative governments shut its colorful neighbourhood taverns.
Some meanwhile insist the redevelopment of Sulukule amounts to more than the disappearance of one of the most picturesque parts of this sprawling city of more than 12 million that has served as the capital of three empires -- Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman.
It means the end of a millennia of history, according to British researcher Adrian Marsh, a specialist on the Roms of Turkey.
Sulukule was the oldest known settlement in the world of Nomadic Roms, said Marsh, first mentioned by a Byzantine scribe in 1054.
His writings speak of "Egyptians" living in black tents along the fortress walls and eking out an existence thanks to their belly dancers, fortune tellers and dancing bears, Marsh said.
After Constantinople -- as it was then known -- fell to the Turks in 1453, Sulukule's dancers and musicians became fixtures of the opulent nights at the Ottoman court.
"Demolishing Sulukule is not the same as demolishing just any other gypsy slum, the way it happens all over Turkey and Europe," said Marsh.
"It is the annihilation of the memory of an entire community."
[PHOTO] A Rom man salvages goods from what once was his neighbourhood following its demolition by authorities in the Sulukule neighborhood of Istanbul. Municipal workers, guarded by anti-riot police, supervised this week the final phases of demolition in Sulukule, a district on the European bank of the Istanbul that was once home to a vibrant community of musicians and artists.
© 2007 AFP Mustafa Ozer
[PHOTO] A Rom man stands amongst his possessions beside the wreckege of what once was his home in the Sulukule neighborhood of Istanbul. Municipal workers, guarded by anti-riot police, supervised this week the final phases of demolition in Sulukule, a district on the European bank of the Istanbul that was once home to a vibrant community of musicians and artists.
© 2007 AFP Mustafa Ozer
[PHOTO] A bulldozer destroys a house in Sulukule neighborhood of Istanbul. Anti-riot police supervised this final phase last week of the demolition of Sulukule, a neighborhood on the European bank of Istanbul once home to a vibrant community of musicians and artists whose rhythmic songs and belly dancing served as the city's musical heart.
© 2007 AFP Mustafa Ozer
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www.csce.gov
Media Contact: Neil Simon
202.225.1901
May 20, 2009
Media Contact: Neil Simon
202.225.1901
May 20, 2009
234 Ford House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-6460
Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, Chairman
Hon. Alcee L. Hastings, Co-Chairman
For Immediate Release
Washington, D.C. 20515-6460
Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, Chairman
Hon. Alcee L. Hastings, Co-Chairman
For Immediate Release
U.S. HELSINKI COMMISSION CHAIRMAN CARDIN AND CO-CHAIRMAN HASTINGS CONDEMN TURKISH GOVERNMENT DESTRUCTION OF NEARLY 1,000-YEAR-OLD ROMA NEIGHBORHOOD
WASHINGTON—Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) and Co-Chairman Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL), today released the following statements upon reports that the Turkish government completed the demolition of Sulukule, a suburb of Istanbul that has been home to the Roma minority since 1054.
“The bulldozing of Sulukule this week by the Turkish government shows a lack of regard for the Romani people, and sadly erases a centuries old fixture of Istanbul’s history,” Cardin said. “The Turkish government should adequately compensate the Romani families and provide alternative housing to keep the community united now that their historic neighborhood is gone.”
“We are deeply concerned about the pattern of housing dislocation Roma are experiencing in numerous countries, brought on by everything from flooding to armed conflict to pure discrimination. When Roma are removed from their homes, often with no adequate alternatives, they are disconnected from schools, health care and a host of other public services, and get sucked even deeper into a vortex of poverty – with predictable and disastrous consequences for families,” Hastings said.
“The destruction of Sulukule to make way for new, higher-priced, villa-style homes that Roma could not afford to purchase is especially regrettable because it occurs at a place this Romani community has called home for nearly 1,000 years,” Cardin added.
The unfortunate outcome of this so-called urban renewal project is not only the destruction of this historic neighborhood, but the forcing of 3,500 Sulukule residents 40 kilometers outside of the city to the district of Tasoluk or onto the streets.
“We urge all OSCE participating States to honor the commitments adopted at the 1999 Istanbul Summit and in other OSCE documents to ensure Roma are treated with dignity and respect,” said Co-Chairmen Cardin and Hastings.
“The bulldozing of Sulukule this week by the Turkish government shows a lack of regard for the Romani people, and sadly erases a centuries old fixture of Istanbul’s history,” Cardin said. “The Turkish government should adequately compensate the Romani families and provide alternative housing to keep the community united now that their historic neighborhood is gone.”
“We are deeply concerned about the pattern of housing dislocation Roma are experiencing in numerous countries, brought on by everything from flooding to armed conflict to pure discrimination. When Roma are removed from their homes, often with no adequate alternatives, they are disconnected from schools, health care and a host of other public services, and get sucked even deeper into a vortex of poverty – with predictable and disastrous consequences for families,” Hastings said.
“The destruction of Sulukule to make way for new, higher-priced, villa-style homes that Roma could not afford to purchase is especially regrettable because it occurs at a place this Romani community has called home for nearly 1,000 years,” Cardin added.
The unfortunate outcome of this so-called urban renewal project is not only the destruction of this historic neighborhood, but the forcing of 3,500 Sulukule residents 40 kilometers outside of the city to the district of Tasoluk or onto the streets.
“We urge all OSCE participating States to honor the commitments adopted at the 1999 Istanbul Summit and in other OSCE documents to ensure Roma are treated with dignity and respect,” said Co-Chairmen Cardin and Hastings.