Roma People Critical At New TV Show

Turkey’s Roma people reacted against the first episode of a new series on Show Tv entitled “Roman Havası” [Roma Rhythm in Turkish].  

They also launched a campaign to submit a complaint to Higher Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK). 

“If they want to shoot a series, they must come to our neighborhood to get to know us,” said editor Ali Mezarcıoğlu from Medya Roman. 

He claimed that the series reproduced the prejudices against Roma people. 

The show is about the love story of two people with families in conflict. 

Roman Havası is not the first TV show on Roma people. Previously, Show TV also aired "Cennet Mahallesi" between 2004 and 2007. 

The same show continued under the same "Görgüsüzler" in 2008. The show was canceled after reactions from Roma associations and their complaint to RTÜK. 

“Come and see the ruined houses and unemployed people”

“The perspective of scriptwriters and producers are so  narrow that they don’t even make folkloric or dialect study on authentic Roma people. They don’t work at all to know Roma people. They don’t even take time to revise the scripts. 

“If you want to make money on Roma people, you don’t always have to praise them, you can also be critical. But at least, try to know them better. If you want to talk about their poverty, come and listen to me first. Come and see their poverty. Look at people with no employment. People don’t pick their heel when their houses are demolished.

“In addition to that, there are 15 million people with Roma background throughout the Europe and they work at different professions including engineering and medicine. Somebody please include them in the series for God’s sake.”

Roma people despise these shows 

“In the 90’s, there was a show called ‘Gırgırıye’. People used to watch it for the sake of its actors like Adile Naşit. The scripts were also better. 

“However, Roma people have no tolerance for the following shows. As soon as the trailer was released for this one, they reacted. They also called me and complaint about it. It seriously created a scandal.” (NV/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish. 

* Kofti is a word used by Roma people with the meaning “fake, bad, hoax”.  

** Photo credit: A photo from the series.