The aim of this thesis is to argue about a Gypsy/Roma community’s identity
construction from the point of view of classical literature on ethnicity, class and
gender dimensions in the symbolic identity construction in the case of Turkey. In this
regard, it is important to examine whether this community benefits from citizenship
rights. For this purpose, Edirne is chosen as a sample of Turkey because majority of
Gypsy/Roma population lives in and this border city into which migrations took
place from Bulgaria and Greece. Also for practical reasons of building a
communication network, Edirne is selected as a case.
A qualitative study, using in-depth interviews with a total of 36 married
persons of Gypsy/Roma community referring 18 household in-depth-interviews have
been conducted from 2003 winter to summer. Besides, in-depth-interviews with 13
non-Gypsies have been conducted. All interviews were recorded, transcribed and the
transcribed texts were used for discourse analysis. During the interviews socio-
economic profile, marriage, practices of cultural habits, neighbourhood partnership,
political identity, religious rituals and perceiving own identity were inquired.
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