In the 1960 Constitution of Cyprus they were considered as part of the Turkish Cypriot community.[7] Once the Gurbeti lived all over Cyprus. After 1975, with the Third Vienna Agreement they migrated, along with the majority of the Turkish Cypriots to Northern Cyprus. Immigration to the United Kingdom and Turkey has also taken place. They describe themselves as Turkish in terms of ethnicity and speak Kurbet language and Cypriot Turkish.[8] In the 17th century, some migrated to Ottoman Rumelia.[9] In the Republic of Cyprus most live in the area of Agios Antonios in Limassol, and in the villages of Makounta, Stavrokonnou and Polis-Chrysochou in Paphos.[7] Persons belonging to the Roma community remain social and economically marginalised despite some government efforts.[10]
Gurbeti in the Balkans
In Vuk Stefanović Karadžić's Serbian dictionary, the word Gurbet means "Gypsy foreign workers". The word is derived from Turkish gurbet, meaning "emigrate".[11] The first mentions of nomadic Roma attributed as Gurbeti ancestors, from Ottoman Cyprus, is from the 17th century.[9] In 1941, most of the Yugoslav Roma settled permanently, with the exception of the Gurbeti in Montenegro.[3]
However, other sources about the Gurbeti have said that their Ancestors once came from Moldova and Wallachia, at the end of the 1850s after Slavery in Romania and settled in the Balkan, and speak a Vlax dialect.[12]
In other parts at the Balkans like in Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia and Greece, the Gurbet are called Pečalbarstvo.[13]
There is a Gurbeti diaspora, such as in Austria and Germany; these were recent migrants, mostly Gastarbeiter unskilled workers, and have since integrated into Austrian and German society. Some of the Gurbeti men married Austrian and German women. The Host population did not see them as Roma, only as Yugoslavian.[12]
Language
Their Kurbet is a variety of Para-Romani.[15] In Kosovo, the Gurbeti speech have either a dominant Serbian substratum, or Albanian substratum. The Džambazi (Acrobatics and Horse trading) nomadic Muslim Romani group, speak a sub-dialect of Kurbet. The origin of the Romani loan words in Croatian are most likely from Gurbeti, who settled predominantly from Bosnia and Herzegovina.[16] Rade Uhlik translated the Gospel of Luke into Bosnian Gurbeti as O keriben pal e Devleskre bičhade. This was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1938, and published in Belgrade.
Genetic
While the Early Romani people traces back to the Indian Subcontinent,[17] also Gene flow from the Ottoman Turks spilled over and established a higher frequency of the Y-haplogroups J and E3b in Balkan Roma Groups.[18] The Greek Doctor A. G. Paspati made the statement in his Book, that Turks married often Roma Woman.[19] Greeks and Slavs DNA also influenced the Balkan Roma people.[20] Also, the genetics of Peoples of the Caucasus influenced the Genetic impact of Roma people.[21]
^Rushton, J. Philippe; Jelena Čvorović; Trudy Ann Bons (January–February 2007). "General mental ability in South Asians: Data from three Roma (Gypsy) communities in Serbia". Intelligence. 35 (1): 1–12. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2006.09.002.
^ abHelena Kanyar-Becker 2003: "In addition, in the XVIIth century, one begins to find mentions of nomadic Rroma, who were from Ottoman Cyprus - the ancestors of the present-day Gurbeti in Yugoslavia."
^Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (2020). "Fifth Opinion on Cyprus". Council of Europe. Strasbourg: Secretariat of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities Council of Europe. p. 4.
^Đura Daničić, Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti 1891: "U Vukovu rječniku. GUBBET, m. Ciganin skitač, arap. tur. ghurbet, ise\avane. — isporedi gurbetaš, gurbetin."
