Questionnaire Enrages Turkey's Roma People

Roma People Rights Forum of Turkey condemned a questionnaire distributed by a researcher on Roma people's religious practices saying that it fed existing prejudices and discrimination.

Last week, a researcher from Uludag University in Bursa distributed a questionnaire to elementary school students with Roma background. The questionnaire, which was meant to be responded by students' parent included questions like "Are you monotheist?", "Do you complete your cleaning duties before Islamic prayer?", "How often do you pray?".

In a statement, the forum harshly criticized the questionnaire saying that it engendered a prejudice in the classroom towards students with Roma background. "We are sending our kids to school so that they can clear away from prejudices. We are not sending them to school to get humiliated and think that there is no way out from prejudices."

The forum said it would be hard to clear prejudices against Roma people in Turkey when even academicians and educators were behaving in such way.

"Our forum," the statement continued, "supports all research efforts aiming to shed light on Roma people's social dynamics in Turkey providing that they are conducted in a prejudice-free and transparent way and with the active participation of Roma people."

The forum also reminded the historic slogan--"We are representing all 72 1/2 nations here"-- of Istanbul's new mosque project in Çamlıca and said: "Everybody knows that nation 1/2 are Roma people. This proves alone how discrimination is widely present against us." (BK)