Who are the Roma of Cyprus – The gypsy village of Paphos, which impressed all foreign travellers

For the arrival of gypsies in Cyprus we don’t have accurate historical data. The most likely arrived on the island around …
1322-1400, when Cyprus was under the territory of the Franks and of the dynasty of Lusignan.
The period during which it is estimated that it appeared the first Roma to the island, coincides with a general movement from Asia to Europe. But this was not the first migration of gypsies to the island.
During the venetian domination many Roma came to Cyprus from Corfu to serve in the venetian guard.
During the Ottoman conquest and after it was restricted to the military role, most εξισλαμίσθηκαν. So they became known as Roma-Γκουρμπέτες while there was a religious group of Christian Orthodox Roma were known as Μάντηδες….
Γκουρμπέτσια. The language of εξισλαμισμένων Roma of Cyprus
With the creation of the Cypriot State recognised the island’s two communities, Greek cypriots and Turkish cypriots, as well as the religious μειοντότητες of the Armenians, Latins and Maronites.
The Γκουρμπέτες not recognised as a religious minority, however, were naturalized as Turkish Cypriots. After Attila ’74 most of the people were transferred together with the t/c in the northern occupied part of the island. The most likely reasons for their inclusion in the t/c community is more linguistic than religious or ethnic. And this is because the γκουρμπέτσια has a lot in common with Turkish. Most have settled in Morphou and Famagusta. On the contrary, the christians of Madhya, of which most live in Larnaca, maintain first the Greek identity, and thus the Roma. In accordance with the Πελεκανή Chryso, the Γκουρμπέτσια spoken only of the Roma of Cyprus. Is oral language variety of the Turkish Cypriot dialect. The dialect borrows words from Persian, Kurdish, Armenian and Arabic. As to the vocabulary shows similarities with the Romani-Καλντεράς. The vocabulary terms in everyday life and is associated with the food, the clothes, the furnishings of the home, family relationships and commercial transactions. According to one interpretation, the cypriot word “κουρούπεττος” and the name of the Roma Γκουρμπετών have the same root. Without the same importance. The word “κουρούπεττος”, used to describe someone who wanders aimlessly, and it’s scruffy, comes from the Turkish word gürbet which means stranger. On the basis of the same logic, the Turks of Cyprus, is said to single out the Roma, the named γκουρμπέτες. Strangers, i.e., wandering aimlessly. Is. The gypsy village of Paphos most gypsies today are found in Larnaca, Morphou, and Famagusta. Some are located in Limassol and Paphos.

In one of the villages of Paphos, the Is seems to have lived most Roma turning the village in a purely gypsy. If today, the Is is classified as a Turkish cypriot village, however the reports of two travelers subvert the data. The first traveler David George Hogarth, in his “Devia Cypria Notes of An Archaeological Journey in Cyprus in 1888″, states the following: The village Is In the centre of the mountain down by St. Photius is the Is, the inhabitants of which are gypsy origin, unless my judgment is very faulty. No other village in Cyprus shows the same peculiar kind, which is particularly noticeable in women, who are presented, whether and muslim women, not only to be free from the veil, but to contact and speak openly with a stranger on a sidewall of men. I have noticed an equal degree of freedom only in the remote muslim villages of Karpasia, the inhabitants of which certainly is not of Turkish origin. These ladies of the Φάλειας also wear a profusion of gold ornaments, unique in Cyprus. The faces of both men and women have extreme μελαψότητα, their hair is jet-black, a nice nose and lips, very shiny eyes, and their ears are small. There is a small similarity with the Μαραθεύτες (residents of Marathasa), which are considered by the Cypriots that are descendants of Phoenician settlers, but in general the resemblance is rather with the type of gypsy with which we are familiar in the West”. In 1918, a second traveler George Jeffery, in his book “A description of the historic monuments of Cyprus. Studies in the archaeology and architecture of the island, informs us that “the Is is a strange village whose inhabitants have been credited with gypsy ancestry: definitely seemed to have a different character and attire of their neighbors a few years back.” Today it is estimated that live on the island around 2,000 or 3,000 Roma. *Information and photos from the blog NOCTOC….
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