Gurbeti

Gurbeti (also Kurbet or Kurbat) are a sub-group of the Romani people living in Cyprus and North Cyprus, Turkey, Crimea, Albania, Serbia and former Yugoslavia whose members are Eastern Orthodox and predominantly Muslim Roma. The Gurbeti make up approximately two thirds of the population of Roma in Macva, many of whom work in agriculture. In Kosovo, other Romani groups viewed the Gurbeti negatively.

History

There are different theories about their origins, but there may also be two different groups of the same Turkish name Gurbeti.

Muslim Gurbeti at Cyprus

According to their own traditions, they are Dom people, their migration to the island was after the Siege of Famagusta from Anatolia and Ottoman Syria. In the 1960 Constitution of Cyprus they were considered as part of the Turkish Cypriot community. Once the Gurbeti lived all over Cyprus. After 1975, with the Third Vienna Agreement they migrated, along with the majority of the Turkish Cypriots to Northern Cyprus. Immigration to the United Kingdom and Turkey has also taken place. They describe themselves as Turkish in terms of ethnicity and speak Kurbet language and Cypriot Turkish. In the 17th century, some migrated to Ottoman Rumelia.Helena Kanyar-Becker 2003: "In addition, in the XVIIth century, one begins to find mentions of nomadic Rroma, who were from Ottoman Cyprus - the ancestors of the present-day Gurbeti in Yugoslavia." In the Republic of Cyprus most live in the area of Agios Antonios in Limassol, and in the villages of Makounta, Stavrokonnou and Polis-Chrysochou in Paphos. Persons belonging to the Roma community remain social and economically marginalised despite some government efforts.

Gurbeti in the Balkans

In Vuk Stefanović Karadžić's Serbian dictionary, the word ''Gurbet'' means "Gypsy foreign workers". The word is derived from Turkish ''gurbet'', meaning "emigrate". The first mentions of nomadic Roma attributed as Gurbeti ancestors, from Ottoman Cyprus, is from the 17th century. In 1941, most of the Yugoslav Roma settled permanently, with the exception of the Gurbeti in Montenegro.

However, other sources about the Gurbeti have said that their Ancestors once came from Moldova and Wallachia, at the end of the 1850s after Slavery in Romania and settled in the Balkan, and speak a Vlax dialect.

Culture

The Gurbeti in the Balkans share some cultural features with the Kalderaš, but also with other Xoraxane, who adopted Turkish culture since the Ottoman time. The majority of Gurbeti are Cultural Muslims while others belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church , and partly assimilated into society. They speak Kurbet language and Cypriot Turkish in Northern Cyprus, and Vlax Romani language, Albanian language, Serbian language and Rumelian Turkish at the Balkans.

Diaspora

There is a Gurbeti diaspora, such as in Austria and German; these were recent migrants, mostly as Gastarbeiter unskilled workers, have since integrated into Austrian and German society. Some of Gurbeti men married Austrian and German women. The Host population didnt saw them as Roma, only as Yugoslavian

Language

Their Kurbet is a variety of Para-Romani. In Kosovo, the Gurbeti speech have either a dominant Serbian substratum, or Albanian substratum. The Džambazi (Acrobatics and Horse trading) nomadic Muslim Romani group, speak a sub-dialect of Kurbet. The origin of the Romani loan words in Croatian are most likely from Gurbeti, who settled predominantly from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rade Uhlik translated the ''Gospel of Luke'' into Bosnian Gurbeti as ''O keriben pal e Devleskre bičhade''. This was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1938, and published in Belgrade.

Genetic

While the Early Romani people traces back to the Indian Subcontinent, also Gene flow from the Ottoman Turks spilled over and established a higher frequency of the Y-haplogroups ''J and E3b'' in Balkan Roma Groups. The Greek Doctor A. G. Paspati made the statemant in his Book, that Turks married often Roma Woman. Greeks and Slavs DNA also influenced the Balkan Roma people. Also, the genetics of Peoples of the Caucasus influenced the Genetic impact of Roma people.

References

Romani in Serbia
Romani groups
Romani in Kosovo
Romani in Cyprus
Para-Romani

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