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The striving of countries in Central Europe to enter the European Union may offer an unprecedented chance to the continent’s Gypsies (or Roman) to be recognized as a nation, albeit one without a defined territory. And if they were to achieve that they might even seek some kind of formal place-at least a total population outnumbers that of many of the Union’s present and future countries. Some experts put the figure at 4m-plus; some proponents of Gypsy rights go as high as 15m.
Unlike Jews, Gypsies have had no known ancestral land to hark back to. Though their language is related to Hindi, their territorial origins are misty. Romanian peasants held them to be born on the moon. Other Europeans (wrongly) thought them migrant Egyptians, hence the derivative Gypsy. Most probably they were itinerant metal workers and entertainers who drifted west from India in the 7th century.
However, since communism in Central Europe collapsed a decade ago, the notion of Romanestan as a landless nation founded on Gypsy culture has gained ground. The International Romany Union, which says it stands for 10m Gypsies in more than 30 countries, is fostering the idea of “self-rallying”. It is trying to promote a standard and written form of the language; it waves a Gypsy flag (green with a wheel) when it lobbies in such places as the United Bations; and in July it held a congress in Prague, The Czech capital. Where President Vaclav Havel said that Gypsies in his own country and elsewhere should have a better deal.
At the congress a Slovak-born lawyer, Emil Scuka, was elected president of the International Tomany Union. Later this month a group of elected Gypsy politicians, including members of parliament, mayors and local councilors from all over Europe (OSCE), to discuss how to persuade more Gypsies to get involved in politics.
The International Romany Union is probably the most representative of the outfits that speak for Gypsies, but that is not saying a lot. Of the several hundred delegates who gathered at its congress, few were democratically elected; oddly, none came from Hungary, whose Gypsies are perhaps the world’s best organized, with some 450 Gypsy bodies advising local councils there. The union did, however, announce its ambition to set up a parliament, but how it would actually be elected was left undecided.
So far, the European Commission is wary of encouraging Gypsies to present themselves as a nation. The might, it is feared, open a Pandora’s box already containing Basques, Corsicans and other awkward peoples. Besides, acknowledging Gypsies as a nation might backfire, just when several countries, particularly Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, are beginning to treat them better, in order to qualify for EU membership. “The EU’s whole premise is to overcome differences, not to highlight them,” says a nervous Eurocrat.
But the idea that the Gypsies should win some kind of special recognition as Europe’s largest continent wide minority, and one with a terrible history of persecution, is catching on . Gypsies have suffered many pogroms over the centuries. In Romania, the country that still has the largest number of them (more than 1m), in the 19th century they were actually enslaved. Hitler tried to wipe them out, along with the Jews.
“Gypsies deserve some space within European structures,” says Jan Marinus Wiersma, a Dutchman in the European Parliament who suggests that one of the current commissioners should be responsible for Gypsy affairs. Some prominent Gypsies say they should be more directly represented, perhaps with a quota in the European Parliament. That, they argue, might give them a boost. There are moves afoot to help them to get money for, among other things, a Gypsy university.
One big snag is that Europe’s Gypsies are, in fact, extremely heterogeneous. They belong to many different, and often antagonistic, clans and tribes, with no common language or religion, Their self-proclaimed leaders have often proved quarrelsome and corrupt. Still, says, Dimitrina Petrova, head of the European Roma Rights Center in Budapest, Gypsies’ shared experience of suffering entitles them to talk of one nation; their potential unity, she says, stems from “being regarded as sub-human by most majorities in Europe.”
And they have begun to be a bit more pragmatic. In Slovakia and Bulgaria, for instance, Gypsy political parties are trying to form electoral blocks that could win seats in parliament. In Macedonia, a Gypsy party already has some-and even runs a municipality. Nicholas Gheorge, an expert on Gypsy affairs at the OSCE, reckons that, spread over Central Europe, there are now about 20 Gypsy MPS and mayors, 400-odd local councilors, and a growing number of businessmen and intellectuals.
That is far from saying that they have the people or the cash to forge a nation. But, with the Gypsy question on the EU’s agenda in Central Europe, they are making ground.
翻譯參考：
中歐國家進入歐洲聯盟的努力可能為非洲大陸的吉普賽人(或羅馬人)被承認為一個國家提供了一個前所未有的機會，雖然沒有明確的領土。如果他們要實現，他們甚至可能尋求某種正式的地位 - 至少總人口超過了歐盟許多現在和未來的國家。一些專家把數字增加到4米以上;一些支援吉普賽人權利的人高達15米。
與猶太人不同，吉普賽人沒有已知的祖先土地回到。雖然他們的語言與印地語有關，但他們的領土起源是有霧的。羅馬尼亞農民認為他們出生在月球上。其他歐洲人(錯誤地)認為他們移民埃及人，因此衍生吉普賽人。最可能的是，他們是巡迴的金屬工人和藝人，他們在7世紀從印度向西遷移。
然而，由於中歐共產主義在十年前崩潰，羅馬帝國作為一個建立在吉普賽文化上的無地國家的概念已經取得了進展。國際羅馬尼亞聯盟，它說，它代表了10多萬吉普賽人在30多個國家，正在促進“自我拉力”的想法。它試圖推廣一種標準和書面形式的語言;它在一個吉普賽旗幟(綠色的輪子)，當它遊說在聯合國Bations的地方;並於7月在捷克首都布拉格舉行了一次大會。總統哈維爾說，吉普賽人在他自己的國家和其他地方應該有一個更好的'交易。
在大會上，一位斯洛伐克出生的律師Emil Scuka被選為國際Tomany聯盟主席。本月晚些時候，一群當選的吉普賽政治家，包括議會議員，來自歐洲各國的市長和地方議員，討論如何說服更多的吉普賽人蔘與政治。
國際羅馬尼亞聯盟可能是代表吉普賽人的最具代表性的裝備，但這不是很多。在聚集其大會的幾百名代表中，很少有民主選舉產生;奇怪的是，沒有來自匈牙利，他們的吉普賽人或許是世界上最好的組織，約450個吉普賽身體向地方議會提供諮詢。然而，工會宣佈它建立議會的野心，但如何實際上將被選舉是未決的。
到目前為止，歐盟委員會對鼓勵吉普賽人作為一個國家表示警惕。可能，恐懼，開啟潘多拉的盒子已經包含巴斯克人，科西嘉人和其他尷尬的人民。此外，承認吉普賽人作為一個國家可能會反應，只是當幾個國家，特別是匈牙利，斯洛伐克和捷克共和國，開始更好地對待他們，以符合歐盟成員資格。 “歐盟的整體前提是克服分歧，而不是突出他們，”一個神經質的歐盟人士說。
但吉普賽人應該贏得某種特別的認可，作為歐洲最大的大陸少數民族，有一個可怕的迫害歷史的想法正在趕上。吉普賽人在過去幾個世紀裡遭受了許多悲劇。在羅馬尼亞，仍然有最大數量的國家(超過100萬)，在19世紀，他們實際上是奴役。希特勒試圖和猶太人一起擦掉他們。
歐洲議會中的荷蘭人Jan Marinus Wiersma說，吉普賽人應該在歐洲結構中擁有一些空間，他建議現任委員之一負責吉普賽事務。一些傑出的吉普賽人說，他們應該更直接地代表，也許在歐洲議會的配額。他們認為，這可能會給他們一個提振。有一些行動，以幫助他們賺錢，除其他外，吉普賽大學。
一個大的障礙是，歐洲的吉普賽人事實上是非常異質的。他們屬於許多不同的，經常是敵對的部落和部落，沒有共同的語言或宗教，他們自我宣稱的領導人經常證明是吵架和腐朽。仍然，說，布達佩斯的歐洲羅姆人權利中心的負責人Dimitrina Petrova說，吉普賽人的共同經歷使他們能夠談論一個國家;她說，她們的潛在團結起源於“被歐洲大多數人視為次人類”。
他們已經開始有點更務實。例如，在斯洛伐克和保加利亞，吉普賽政黨正在試圖建立選舉區，可以贏得議會席位。在馬其頓，吉普賽人已經有了一些，甚至有一個市鎮。歐洲安全與合作組織吉普賽事務專家尼古拉斯·格霍斯(Nicholas Gheorge)認為，現在約有20名吉普賽人的MPS和市長，400多名地方議員，以及越來越多的商人和知識分子。
這不是說他們有人民或現金建立一個國家。但是，由於中歐歐盟議程上的吉普賽問題，它們正在發展。
