{"id":1414,"date":"2014-05-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/07-05-2014-european-elections-greek-and-muslim-rromni-without-chance\/"},"modified":"2022-07-25T15:27:03","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T14:27:03","slug":"07-05-2014-european-elections-greek-and-muslim-rromni-without-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/07-05-2014-european-elections-greek-and-muslim-rromni-without-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"07.05.2014 European elections: Greek and Muslim Rromni without chance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tzafalias (2014) reports \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ton the candidacy of the Greek and Muslim Rromni Sabiha Suleiman for the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEuropean Parliament. Suleiman runs for the left-wing opposition party Syriza<\/em>, but was dropped from \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe list again shortly after her nomination. The reasons for her being dropped, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSuleiman Tzafalias describes as driven by ethnic disputes: Dimitris \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChristopoulos, who actively championed for the removal of Suleiman, referred to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe supremacy of the Turkish Muslims in the region: \u201cSuleiman’s candidacy would be a show of support for nationalism in an \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tarea of Greece which is plagued by it, to the detriment of those Greek Muslims \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twho define themselves as ethnically Turkish. He [Christopoulos] even said that \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe Muslim minority in Thrace is a \u201cunified Turkish thing\u201d, and – initially – \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmade no mention of those Muslims who define themselves as Roma or Pomak, a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSlav-speaking ethnic group. [\u2026] Suleiman, who defines herself as a Greek Roma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMuslim woman, said all this was happening because the Turkish consulate in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThrace was targeting her, as they wanted to ensure that the Muslim Roma were \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tabsorbed into the Turkish minority.\u201d <\/em>The case described by Tzafalias is a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprime example of what is known in the social sciences as \u201cintersectionality\u201d: the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsimultaneous membership to different groups and the associated special features \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand difficulties. To better understand the case of Thrace, Tzafalias refers to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923. As a result of the demise of the Ottoman Empire, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttwo million people should be exchanged between Greece and the newly founded \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTurkey: the Muslim Greeks to Turkey and the Christian-Turks to Greece. The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma are still caught in the crossfire of political efforts to homogenize \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tethnic states. A worrying development (compare Wordbulletin News 2014).<\/p>\n