Romani

How is a nation's social memory shaped, how are multiple identities constructed within society, and how does the transformation of social categories occur? Gül Özateşler seeks answers to these questions through the exclusionary violence perpetrated against Roma in Turkey, focusing on the events that took place in 1970 in the town of Bayramiç, Çanakkale, leading to the forced displacement of the Roma. Özateşler, within an analytical framework extending from a small town to the entire country, also traces the socio-economic structure of Turkey, the construction of the Romani category, nationalism, and the reproduction of ethnic and religious identities.

The oral history method used in the study offers a perspective that allows us to view the event from the perpetrators', victims', and authorities' points of view, revealing the historical structure behind the everyday.

Gül Özateşler is a faculty member in the Sociology Department at Dokuz Eylül University.