Refugees who were sent to Turkey in the context of Turk-Greece Population Exchange (1923) were not classified according to ethnicities. This is the reason why population of immigrant Roma have never known surely.
Some people always wonder how many Roma live in Turkey. However, population of the other ethnic groups have never been examined as population of Roma were discussed. It was always discussed in some articles about history or present day and behind closed doors that how many Roma live in Turkey.
A man travelled around the country to count Roma people. He also benefited from mukhtars to reach a realistic number of Roma population in Turkey. At the end, he announced a number which is lower than the number he found in his research. Then, he reported that "there is nothing to be afraid of Gypsy in Turkey". I am not able to understand these people. I don't know why they want to count us? Roma people have always been familiar with their country from Ottoman Empire to the Republic. They have never treasoned to their country.
Roma immigrants were settled in Turkey according to social and economic circumstances. People whose main subsistence way had been tobocco working in Drama, Kavala, Crete were settled to Tekirdağ and Agean regions of Turkey which were important centres of tobocco production at that time.
Roma immigrants were settled in the cities like İstanbul, Kırklareli, Edirne, Bursa, Balıkesir, İzmir, Manisa and Muğla. They subsisted on tobocco working in these places. There was an important manpower deficit in sectors like tobocco production, grapery, carpet business in which Greeks were dominant element before population exchange. These sectors went through a crisis with the population exchange.
İmmigrant Roma and the other muslim immigrants coming from Drama, Serez, Langaza started to work in these sector after population exchange. Population of Greeks who were sent to the Greece was close to 1200000. On the contrary, population of muslims who were sent to Turkey was almost 500000. This difference influenced agricultural production negatively in Turkey. Roma people had an important role as agricultural workers in Turkish economy on account of the fact that there was a huge manpower deficit at that time in conjuction with population exchange. Addings of Roma people to Turkish economy shouldn't be ignored from past to present.
*the president of Support Association of Salonica Immigrant of Fethiye
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