Turcoman Gypsies in the Balkans: Just a Preferred Identity or More? in Romani History and Culture Festschrift in Honour of Prof. Dr. Veselin Popov / Hristo Kyuchukov, Sofiya Zahova, Ian Duminica

Muslim communities speaking primarily Turkish and identifying themselves as Turks but called ‘Gypsy’ by the surrounding populations, including ethnic Turks, has been a widespread Balkan phenomenon. The pioneer studies on Balkan Roma explained such identity formations referring to the flexible nature of self-identification, relying on significant historical and ethnographic data. According to that, Turkish identity, primarily perceived to be identical with one of the most long-lasting regional empires’ heritage, was a preferred identity for Balkan Roma, demanding a more prestigious social status. No doubt that explanation is accurate for the majority of observed cases. However, two archival documents, recently discovered in the Ottoman archives in Sofia and Istanbul, indicate another facet of the issue. According to the one dated 1869, there was a sub-group among those registered as Gypsy by the government in the Balkans, identified as Turkoman Gypsies [Turkmān Ḳibṭīleri] and to the other dated 1708, the state saw such communities as a branch of broader nomadic Turkoman people and was aware of their tribal divisions. Recent studies documented that the Ottoman state often registered non-Roma communities, such as Abdals and Tahtacıs, who subsisted on service providing and craft production and were relatively more mobile than the outsiders they engaged, ‘Gypsy’ in Anatolian Turkey. The documents studied here prove that the Ottoman state was doing the same in its European territory. Besides, at least a small minority among the people whose preferred identity is Turkishness but called ‘Gypsy’ in the contemporary Balkans might be the descendants of those indicated in the documents.