Create a 5 pages page paper that discusses teaching gurbetcha as a mother language to turkish cypriot roma-gurbeties children.

Create a 5 pages page paper that discusses teaching gurbetcha as a mother language to turkish cypriot roma-gurbeties children. Now the question would arise as to who is the Cypriot Roman Gurbeties. Well, I would say that it is an ethnic community that belongs to Cyprus but has amalgamated with other communities within its borders. There are no official records of the arrival of Cypriot Muslim Roma or Gurbeties in Cyprus. 500-1,000 Roma-Gurbeties living in Cyprus. They are not considered a religious group. Most of them live in Famagusta, Morphou, Limassol and Paphos. They call themselves “Gurbet/Kurbet” 1 and their language “Gurbetcha /Kurbetcha” (local minority language). According to Nicos( 2009) “The Roma were not considered at all. the uncertainty about their numbers, their lifestyle and the fact that most were Turkish speaking, and only a few were Greek-speaking (and Christian) who were gradually„assimilated, presumably made matters complicated in granting a religious group‟ status”. Now, this is not a minority community but they are in large numbers present in Turkey and Greece as they have assimilated with the Turkish community in the late 18thcentury. Now it is a saddening fact that the children from this community have lesser access to education. Moreover, I was shocked by the fact that they have alienated from their mother tongue due to settlement and political situations. So the discriminated state of this minority community had compelled me to teach them their mother tongue which is “Gurbetcha”. According to Trimikliniotis (2007,pg.2) “The Equality Body examined a complaint of discrimination against Turkish-Cypriots in their access to public services and to employment and self-employment, resulting from the failure of the government to use Turkish language, one of the two official languages, in the Official”.

This initiative came out of the Ministry of Education and Culture. A pilot study was conducted in order to investigate the attitudes of the R/G towards their language variation Gurbetcha and whether they would like their children to be taught about their history, language, and culture. Actually, 33 students and 15 parents attended the survey and the discussion was on the positive reaction to the implementation of this course in the extra-curricular program at the primary school.