The forced dislocation of Gypsy people from the town of Bayramiç, Çanakkale in 1970

Abstract

This oral project draws upon Gypsies’ and non-Gypsies’ narratives of forced dislocation from the town of Bayramic in 1970 with a focus on the recruitment of categories of Gypsyness and Turkishness. It reveals different perspectives and memory constructions along with the positions taken in the attacks and the socioeconomic structure. It displays how and why the social categories functioned by underlining the flexibility of the category of Gypsyness and Turkishness in the town’s context. It discloses how ethnic and other identities represented in cultural spheres can be employed to conceal socio-economic and political inequalities. Thus, the general constitutions of the aforementioned categories in relation to citizenship, nationalism, class and ethnicity in Turkey with an urge for a critical thinking on the logic of national historiography through a particular case and its reflections on ordinary people’s lives are presented. Our particular case will also exemplify how different categories work in relation to national identity, discourse and practices. How nationalism takes different forms and identifications, how and/or when Turkishness is realized and practiced differently, how Gypsyness is constructed in relation to dominant perceptions especially on Turkishness are among the issues of this research.