President Erdoğan attends 2023 Romani Gathering
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made a speech at the 2023 Romani Gathering in Istanbul
“These lands have been home to different civilizations, different cultures and different communities and yet have always remained a symbol of fertility and abundance throughout millennia. We have lived together on these lands by seeing everything on them as a manifestation of our common wealth for a thousand years,” the President said.
“WE REMOVED ALL THE DISCRIMINATORY EXPRESSIONS FROM OUR LEGISLATION”
President Erdoğan stated: “Our Romani brothers and sisters, as well, experienced some difficulties in the past, just like every citizen of this country. However, thanks be to Allah, it fell to us to solve these problems, which partly resulted from the use of rights and freedoms and partly from the unequitable distribution of material resources. To this end, we first removed all the discriminatory expressions from our legislation. Therefore, we left behind an era marked by disgraceful epithets. Through amendments in the panel code, we have cleared the way for anyone facing hatred and discrimination due to their origin, color, language or faith to claim their rights. With the many meetings held and many regulations introduced during our governments, we have ensured that our Romani brothers and sisters’ problems are discussed and solutions to them are sought by the upper echelons of the state. In the cities where our Romani brothers and sisters live densely, we have founded mechanisms to particularly support them in every area from education to healthcare, employment to social aid.”
Announcing the upcoming launch of a Roma Coordination Center affiliated to the Ministry of Interior, President Erdoğan noted: “Within this context, one coordinator from among you in 25 provinces each where our Romani citizens live densely will be assigned to the governorates of these provinces. These coordinators have already taken office in 11 governorates, with the assignments in the remaining provinces to be completed rapidly.”
“THE CENTURY OF TÜRKİYE EMBRACES EVERYONE”
Pointing out that the world is going through a period when the political and economic system is being shaken and the pains of a new global government order are being experienced, President Erdoğan said: “Türkiye, thankfully, is entering this period with the strong infrastructure of democracy and development we have introduced in our country over the past two decades.”
President Erdoğan continued his remarks as follows: “Even the reforms we have carried out as regards our Romani citizens are alone enough to show the historic importance of the transformation this period had led to for our country. What we mean by the Century of Türkiye is much more than just leaving behind our Republic’s previous century and entering the next. The Century of Türkiye, in essence, depicts a vision that will help enable our country to achieve our shared aspirations with its every single inch of land and every single citizen. That is why we say that the Century of Türkiye belongs to anyone who feels like they belong in this country, that it is the shared property of all, and that it embraces everyone.”
