RESPONSE TO PRESENTATION OF PROF. DR. MARSEL KURTIJADE AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE HELD IN NEW DELHI 29.11-03.12.2018

ROMA COME FROM PUJAB AND CHANDIGARH (NORTHERN INDIJA)

After returning from the International conference held in New Delhi, prof. dr. Bajram Haliti (Secretary General of the World Roma Organization and President of the Institute for European Studies of Roma and Research on Crimes against Humanity and International Law), in agreement with the President of the WRO and the Ambassador for Peace, Jovan Damjanovic, held an online conference with members of the presidency of the WRO . During the online conference dr. Haliti briefed them about the Conference. He pointed out the fact that the Conference was scheduled on the very significant date for the history and identity of the Roma people, and that it was a very good opportunity to address serious issues related to the recognition of Roma by the state of India and the status of Roma in the rest of the world. The legitimacy and importance of the Conference should have been confirmed by the presence and participation of well-known Roma intellectuals with a global reputation.

Instead, the Conference, was attended by only few Roma with an academic title. This was insufficient and inadequate considering the scope and importance of the topics of the Conference, and the fact that the process of recognizing Roma as the Indian diaspora has not yet begun.

There were also other flaws in the organization of the Conference, however the main issue is that a very important opportunity to address, on the Indian, the injustice that seems to be done to Roma for political and traditional dualism within the Indian political scene, was missed. .

Even those who were present presented different views concerning already adopted postulates regarding the standardization of the Romani language and their history, specifically the part of India of Roma origin, from which most of today's Roma come. This created a unfortunate image of the lack of agreement among Roma intellectuals on elementary issues important for the future of Roma.

President of the World Roma Organization and Ambassador for Peace, Jovan Damjanovic, said that he agrees with prof. dr. Bajram Haliti and that the conference did not really have the legitimacy and scientific authority due to the absence of very important Roma representatives from the World and Europe. Instead of them, Dr. Marcel Kurtiarde, as one of the organizers from Europe, brought his students to the Conference as if it was a linguistic and irrelevant event, and not a serious Conference, aiming to, after a thousand years, start a dialogue with the Government of India and the Council for the Indian Diaspora ARSP ICCR about the constitutional and legal status of Roma in the world as a result of the non-recognition of Roma by India as a diaspora.

"I do not have enough information about the reasons for non – attendance and absence of the most famous Roma academics, people who have invested half of their lives to research and verifying Roma origin, history, language, tradition, customs and culture. I only know that Dr. Marcel Kurtiade should answer to this question to the Roma, "concluded Damjanovic. "The impression is that, again personal vanity, egocentrism and selfish interests have taken over this kind of scientific gathering, In this way the struggle of the Roma intellectual elite to resolve the millennium old Gordian knot, which is called the constitutional and legal status of the Roma as an indigenous people originating in India based on international law and principles restored by the UN and the EU, returned several steps backwards. "

"His action got the attention away from the international constitutional and legal position of Roma in Europe and the in the world. An important topic that still has not been initiated is that the Roma still do not have protected rights by the Lisbon Constitution, which only recognizes status of national minorities.

The biggest criticism of the Conference is that, due to Professor Kurtijade's presentation, the true genesis of Roma originating from Chandigarh and Punjab was not discussed, as well as racism, xenophobia, segregation, discrimination and new phenomena of neo-Fascism and neo-Nazism in some European countries.

The accent was on new principles of standardization of the Romani language, although the standards had been struck in the 1990s in Warsaw with the signature of 23 academics and a doctor of science from around the world. Without intending to open up a controversy about this topic, I think it was more beneficial for Roma that the Indian public and intellectuals who were present on the Conference are hearing about the consequences that the Roma suffer because of non-recognition by the state of India. The real origin is definitely confirmed by DNA research published in 2012 and every theory after that becomes obscure and, I might say even ridiculous. "said Jovan Damjanovic in his address.

The central theme was the recognition of the Roma by the state of India and the fact that Roma should be recognized as an Indian diaspora that will be protected and guaranteed by the UN International Convention on Human Rights in Europe and the world. This would have provided them protection under the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities(1995) and would have protected the rights of the Convention on Regional and Minority Rights (1992).

Conclusion of the Presidency of the WRO is that we criticize the actions of Dr Kurtijade regarding the organization and realization of this, for the Roma, one of the most important conferences not only because of the cause, but also because of the fact that it was held in a mother land of Roma People. Instead of promoting Roma as Indian diaspora it turned into a colloquial debate on the subject of the Romany language and part of India from which the largest number of today's Roma came from.

Dr. Marcel Kurtiade's contribution to the research of the Romani language is not disputed, nor is his authority in the field of linguistics. But he does not give him the right to block Roma intellectuals and doctors of law, anthropologists, historians, lawyers and sociologists, who built their reputation in other areas and who did not interfere with the work of Dr. Kurtiade,. We also think that he can’t speak about the historical, anthropological, linguistic and legal fate of the Roma.

We will forward this response to all important organizations dealing with the Human rights , important European institutions dealing with Roma, and also to certain universities and representatives for the Diaspora in India. Because one thing is to represent the Roma as a nation that is equal to others in the fields of science, culture, art, sports, music and the like, and quite another to fight for the constitutional legal issues of Roma and advocate and lead the Roma people in the struggle for national recognition and collective identity .

In Belgrade,

01/15/2019

Jovan Damjanovic

President of the World Roma Organization and Ambassador for Peace