Gurbeti (also Kurbet or Kurbat or غربتی in Persian) are a sub-group of the Romani people living in Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, Cyprus,[1] and the former Yugoslavia[2][3] whose members are Eastern Orthodox and predominantly Muslim Roma.
[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.
[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.
The majority of Gurbeti are Cultural Muslims while others belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church, and partly assimilated into society.
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.
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.