Many have denied their Romani background over the centuries in order to establish a Turkish identity, to become more accepted by the host population.
The Ottoman Turkish Historian Evliya Çelebi explains in his Seyahatnâme, that Mehmed the Conqueror in 1453, took Muslim Roma from Balat, Didim and former Menteşe (beylik), as well as the irreligious Roma from Gümülcine, and settled them in Istanbul, but both Groups didn't get along well, and some of the Gümülcine Groups went back.
[12][13] Uniquely to Ottoman history, the Muslim Roma people were given their own Sanjak at the Kırklareli Province, by the order of Suleiman the Magnificent at 1530.
[14] The Turkish Historian Reşat Ekrem Koçu, explained that Muslim (Horahane), Eastern Orthodox (Dasikane) and Pagan Roma (Gadjikane) Groups lived in the Ottoman Empire.
According to their own oral tradition, (but it varies in some stories), their ancestors once came from Hindustan[16][17] The Early Romani originate from the Indian subcontinent,[18][19][20][21][22][23] especially from Rohri in the Sukkur District of Sindh.
The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community, spread across 30 countries, as a part of the Indian diaspora.
[29] While the Early Romani people traces back to the Indian subcontinent,[30] gene flow from the Ottoman Turks spilled over and established a higher frequency of the Y-haplogroups J and E3b in Balkan Roma Groups.
[38] Many Turkish-speaking tribes known for their pipe-and-drum bands, who were descendants of the Turcoman Gypsies went to Istanbul following the Bulgarian Declaration of Independence.
[47] Conservative Romani groups are, among others, the long-established Tekkekapılı, Kağıtçılar (Papermakers), the semi-nomadic Bandırmalı, (named after Bandırma, but their ancestors once came from Greece around 1923), who all live in Selamsız Romani-quarter in Üsküdar.
[51] A Turkish Romani settlement in Istanbul appears in From Russia with Love, 1963 spy film and the second in the James Bond series.
A group of Turkish Romani appears in the 16th century Ottoman Constantinople of the video game Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
Many Turkish Roma, are members of the Hindiler Tekkesi a Qadiriyya-Tariqa, founded in 1738 by the Indian Muslim Sheykh Seyfullah Efendi El Hindi in Selamsız.
[2] The majority of the Romani people in Turkey live in Eastern Thrace, mostly in the Kırklareli Province, they are divided into two Main groups, the Sedentary Yerli and the Semi-Nomadic Çerge.
There are several subgroups of both, named after their old professions which they once practiced or which they still do in part, as example: the Sepetçiler (Basketmaker's), Çiçekçi (Flower seller), Cambazı (Horse trader), Ayıcılar (Bear-leader's), Demirci (Blacksmith), Çiçekçi (Flower seller), Sünnetçi (Circumciser), Subaşı (Water carrier), Kuyumcu (Goldsmith), Kalaycı (Tinsmith), Şarkıcı (Singer), Müzisyen (Musician), Elekçiler (Sieve maker's), Bohçacı (Bundler), Arabacı (Coachman), Katırcıları (Muleteer's), etc.