‘Investigate the hate crimes against Romani people’

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) İzmir MP Özcan Purçu has submitted a Parliamentary inquiry to the Speaker's Office of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) and requested that a Parliamentary committee be established to investigate the discrimination, segregation and hate crimes targeting the Romani people in Turkey.

The Parliamentary inquiry of the MP has come shortly after the suspicious death of Caner Sarmaşık on April 29 during his mandatory military service. Making a statement about the issue, the Romani Rights Association noted that his death was "the end point of discrimination."

It was also reported in the press that before his death, Sarmaşık called his family and said, "This commander is giving me a really hard time. I don't know what to do." His family went to the neighborhood head's office and the neighborhood head called the commander. Then, the commander used such remarks as "Why did you call your family? You complained about us."

CLICK - Suspicious death of soldier on Parliamentary agenda

In his Parliamentary inquiry, CHP's Purçu has underlined that the Romani is the community that face discrimination and hate speech the most, adding that Romani people struggle against poverty and hunger. Indicating that the 'Romani opening' could not be put into practice, Purçu has stressed that their culture is being destroyed and requested an inquiry into the issue.

Court cases continued for years

CHP İzmir MP Özcan Purçu has noted that discrimination and hate crimes targeting the Romani people have an effect on several basic areas of life such as healthcare, education and housing.

"Especially the Romani people in our country are subjected to discrimination in even accessing their fundamental rights," Özcan Purçu has underlined in his inquiry, sharing the following details:

"Due to the hate crimes that they faced, the Romani people had to quit their jobs, their children dropped out of school and people had to leave the places where they lived, they had to leave their homes in the middle of the night, leaving their property behind.

"The court cases continued for long years and, in most cases, what the displaced Romani people went through could not be compensated. With a further increase in unemployment and hunger as a result of the pandemic, poverty has become more and more insurmountable."

Poverty, hate crimes, impunity...

Raising concerns about several problems faced by the Romani people, CHP's Purçu has also listed the types of discrimination:

- They struggle against poverty due to discrimination in every sphere,
- Students cannot access distance learning,
- They are not treated equally in employment,
- The jobs that bring daily income such as being musicians, basketmakers, tinsmiths, flower sellers and sellers in bazaars are disappearing and they are deprived of their daily income due to the pandemic,
- They face impunity for the crimes committed against them and there is a failure to carry out an effective investigation into these crimes,
- They are faced with decisions of urban transformation taken for their places of residence without being informed beforehand; officials and municipal police officers sometimes evict the Romani people by using force; they are forced to leave their property and the ones evicted from their houses are not provided with an alternative shelter or compensation.
- When they are displaced, they have difficulty in even meeting their basic needs; in the meantime, they face security threats and they are concerned that their right to life might be violated.

'Impunity leads to new hate crimes'

Against this backdrop, Purçu has stressed that some hate crimes committed against the Romani people in Turkey leave deep marks:

"Hate speech and discrimination underlie the hate crimes. A struggle against impunity for discrimination and hate crimes will be possible by developing effective policies and legal regulations." (AÖ/SD)