Madalin NecsutuChisinauBIRNMarch 2, 202311:52Orthodox Church denies exclusive responsibility for the enslavement of the Roma over several centuries, after Roma leader threatens Church with a lawsuit if it does not recognise its key role.
Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Daniel (C – in white), accompanied by Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I (L), in Bucharest, Romania, November 25, 2018. Photo: EPA/Robert Ghement
Romania’s main faith organisation, the Orthodox Church, has disputed claims that the country’s Roma suffered exclusively from slavery in past centuries, after being threatened with a lawsuit.
Dorin Cioaba, the self-proclaimed king of the Roma in Romania, told the Conference of European Roma on Wednesday in Sibiu that he will file an international lawsuit if the Romanian Orthodox Church does not recognise its involvement in the enslavement of the Roma between the 15th and 19th centuries in the Romanian Principalities.
But a Romanian Orthodox Church spokesman, Victor Banescu, on Wednesday responded that Roma and Romanians suffered together from slavery, which was abolished in the Romanian Principalities in 1855, and said the Church should not be singled out for exclusive responsibility.
“It is unfair to select only a certain category of facts, such as ‘slavery of the Roma’, and to apply this judgment key to only one institution, the Romanian Orthodox Church,” said Banescu.
“For 167 years, since the Roma were enslaved, the Orthodox Church has done nothing and has never publicly apologised and continues to cover up this topic […] We have publicly and through various projects requested the Church to provide documents [about the enslavement of the Roma],” Cioaba told the online portal Turnul Sfatului.
Cioaba also announced the start of construction of the first International Roma Museum that will be built in Sibiu.
In 2016, on the 160th anniversary of the emancipation of the Roma in the Romanian Principalities, the head of the Church, Patriarch Daniel, called for an honest investigation of the enslavement of the Roma in the Romanian Principalities, which must take into account the international context, not only the local one.
The mass migration of Roma to Europe began in the 14th century with the start of the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Throughout the 15th century, they moved westwards in Europe.
For almost four centuries, the Roma were slaves of various rulers, monasteries or the property of the “boyars”, or princes, in the Romanian Principalities.
The Roma who arrived in Moldova or Wallachia at first became slaves of the rulers. Over time, they became the property of monasteries or boyars, as confirmed by medieval historical sources.
The British historian Angus Fraser, a specialist in the history of the Roma, has said: “The Roma slaves of the monasteries often lived in their premises and performed certain jobs or were servants. Their situation was superior to the field working gipsies.”
The enslavement of the Roma was officially abolished on December 22, 1855, in Moldova and on February 20, 1856, in Wallachia.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
