Identity, family and training among the three gypsy groups living in Kirikkale, Ankara and Istanbul

In this research, some Gypsy families living in Kırıkkale, Ankara and Istanbul were investigated, with a particular focus on their notions of identity and concepts of family and children. The thesis has shown that their concepts and styles are not far from ours`, in fact, they are much closer than we think. The family has a vital responsibility for conveying cultural inheritance to the young generation. It has a close cultural relation with the most primitive and the most developed of all social and cultural system environments. As the result of this investigation, family and relatives at small and traditional society, means the research of complete structure of social group. When carrying out performing this research, I lived together with Gypsy and gattered information. I made participant observation. I took photographs. My information relied mostly on traditional and oral documents, since they have very little written documents. The literature and the Gypsies indicates that they originated in Northern India but spread out in modern times worlwide, especially to Europe. Some of the Gypsies speak Romany, a language closely related to the modern Indo-European languages of northern India, as well as major language of the country in which they live. It is generally agreed that Gypsy groups left India in repeated out migrations and that they were in Persia by the 11th century, in Southeastern Europe by the beginning of the 14th, and in Western Europe by the 15th century. By the second half of the 20th century, Gypsies had spread throughout North and South America and to Australia. The estimated total Gypsy population ranges from 17,000,000 to 33,000,000. But the significant statistical picture cannot be gained from the different countries. The majority of Gypsies are still in Europe. Only after their first appearance in Europe, they fell under penalty and panishment from almost all the nations of western Europe. Despite their systematic exile, or transportation abroad, however, Gypsies continued to reappear and living in one guise or another back in the countries that they had left. Increasingly in 20th century, Gypsies struggled with contradictions in their culture. No longer did they defend themselves so much against persecution from a hostile society but rather against erosion to their life-styles from urban influences in industrialized societies. There are different figures presented about the Gypsy population in Turkey. Estimates of the total Gypsy population in Turkey range from 100,000 to 550,000. While they were trying to be assimilated and/or be exiled from European countries, they found relative acceptance and a chance to live freely in our country. Nevertheless, despite individualization, there are some wrong evaluations and beliefs about Gypies in our society. My research on the one hand throws light on the wrong beliefs and on the other hand, explains our similarities with this group of people. They are paying taxes, accomplishing military service and deserving to be in these countries' citizenships like us. It is our basic duty, to cover and solve these people's problems, their integration to the society while protecting their cultural charesteristic. Keywords: Gypsy, identity, family, training.