November, 2008

In a small house on a street strewn with litter and lined by ruins of buildings whose inhabitants have already left, Goksel Gulkoperan was waiting for his own eviction this week. Mr Gulkoperan was given until today to leave the house near the ancient city walls of Turkey’s metropolis, Istanbul, or risk being thrown out.

“I don’t know where to go,” Mr Gulkoperan said. His home, like the rest of the poor neighbourhood of Sulukule, an old Istanbul quarter that once was a popular nightlife centre and is known for its predominantly Roma population, is to be torn down to make room for luxury apartments, hotels and shopping centres.

Location

United States

41° 1' 15.3876" N, 28° 58' 55.29" E

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Hungary's police have stepped up an investigation into a spate of attacks against Roma residents which have prompted concerns that the increase in violence against the Roma is connected to the rise in radical nationalism in the country.

Police last week set up a special 50-member unit involving Roma experts to investigate 16 of the attacks perpetrated this year, which includes the recent cold-blooded murder of four Roma villagers on two separate occasions.

Roma representatives suspect radical nationalists of carrying out the attacks, most of which involved the use of handguns, petrol bombs and hand grenades.

The rising number of attacks became a big national issue after a Roma man and a woman on November 3 were killed by shots fired through their windows in the impoverished north east, followed by another incident on November 18, when a Roma couple died after a grenade was thrown through the window of their flat in the city of Pecs, south Hungary.

Location

United States

47° 29' 41.7732" N, 19° 1' 41.952" E

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While Hungarians have no particular problems with ethnic Germans or Croatians, there is a wide-spread dislike of the Roma population, national daily Nepszabadsag reported on Thursday, citing a recent study.

Research carried out by economist and theologian Janos Wildmann gauging attitudes about the religious beliefs and values of Germans, Croatians and Roma in Hungary, found that negative attitudes were more abundant towards the Roma than the other two groups.

While 20 percent of respondents felt disturbed by the fact that they could not understand the language of the German and Croatian minorities, 30 percent felt the same about the Roma. A similar percentage of people polled felt that Roma culture was "strange".

Two-thirds of respondents agreed with complaints about a rising Roma population, and 75 percent believed the Roma do not abide by laws and receive too much welfare support.

Location

United States

47° 30' 8.4924" N, 19° 2' 21.5052" E

See map: Google Maps