The First Human Rights Gypsy Congress Held in Bulgaria in 1905

News from old times:

The First “Human Rights” Gypsy Congress held in Bulgaria in 1905

(Extract prepared byVedar Georgievbased the investigative article of Rossen Tahov, printed in ‘Pogled’ weekly newspaper, 5 March 2007)

"TIMES" newspaper informed about the FIRST GYPSY CONGRESS in BULGARIA

The forum announced one of the most popular Bulgarian Prime-Ministers, Mr Petko Karavelov, to be from Gypsy origin and asked Gypsies to be guaranteed voting rights

ROSSEN TAHOV

In 1905 the Bulgarian gypsies came together for a historical congress which turned into the first public claim for equal civil rights for the marg8inalized ‘darker’ part of the Bulgarian population.

The London newspaper Times reflected on the Gypsies gathering with several correspondences from Sofia. Information about the Gypsy congress appeared also in the New York newspaper ‘Evening Post’

In December 1905 multi-colored posters in the Bulgarian capital announced that a Gypsy convention will be held, of the kind of a ‘plenum’. The announced site of the gathering was the construction of the circus ‘Bulgaria’.

The circus was overcrowded by the announced hour of commencement. A short man stepped forward and raised his hand as Danton did. The crowd silenced. “Dear misters Gypsies!” started the orator. There was dead silence. |Great Copt tribe that arrived to these lands in unknown times!” goes on the tribune.

The GypsyDanton is the lawyer Marco Markov. He has graduated several university faculties. Born in Tulca, today in Romania, Markov studied there in a French-German boarding house, then in the “Oxford of the East” – the American Robert College in Istanbul and in the famous Russian Nikolaevska High School. Later he studied in Bern and Zurich and graduated law in Liege with the title Doctor of legal sciences. Markov is also correspondent of “Koelnische Zeitung”, of the Brussels newspaper “Reform” and of the Bucarest newspaper “Telegraful”.

The doctor is a polyglot, fluent in French, German, English, Italian, Russian, Romanian and Greek. He speaks also Turkish and works on mastering his knowledge of Romani language. His speech in the circus is mixed with Latin and French sentences. “O, tempora, o, mores” shouts he and the dark auditorium gets fanatical.

The orator persuades the Gypsy representatives that it is imperative to organize a Gypsy Congress. And the December plenum sends messages to all bigger towns in Bulgaria. Decision is taken that a daily newspaper “Human Rights” shall be started – in Bulgarian and in French, so that the world will know about the Gypsies inspirations.

The Congress opens on 19 December 1905 in the local San Srefano in Sofia. First to arrive are the delegates from Haskovo, Kyustendil, Pleven and Byala Slatina. And then all the invited come. The Gypsy elite from whole Bulgaria come together.

At 2:30 pm the “Muhtar”/leader of the Gypsies from the capital Aramadin Aliov climbs the tribune. Dark-skinned, stout, magnificent with his colored turban, with wide waist-band and braided short jacket, he addresses the auditorium “Be welcome!”

Next to take the floor are Ali Bilyalov and the delegate from the city of Plovdiv Ali Mutishev who starts his speech with “Long Life, Royal Prince Ferdinand!”

Marco Markov is next on the tribune. He proposes a Gypsy Board of 6 people plus a cashier and administrator. They are elected unanimously. Markov does not propose himself for President – but it is taken for granted and no one disputes.

“Gypsies”, starts the lawer, are either Aryan tribe from India, or Copts, i.e. from Egypt. They came to the Balkan peninsula in 870 in the time of the Byzantian emperor Nikiphorus. As Prime Minister in 1901 Petko Karavelov deprives them of voting rights and declares them an “inferior” race.

“And the Prime Minister origins from then Karakachans – he is a Gypsy himself”, announced in authoritarian way the orator. And the founder of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Vassil D. Stoyanov is also of Gypsy origin, states the orator.

Stenographic notes preserved the final of his speech: “What it will be if the Gypsies, for example, decide to move – who will tin-plate the pots and saucepans in the villages? Who will be their porters in the capital? (shouts: “So it is!”) Gypsies, my dear misters Gypsies, are productive people and we are obliged to restore their taken away rights!”

The Congress receives greeting letters and telegrams from everywhere of the country – from Vidin, Silistra, Shuman, Varna, the delegates, on their part, send a telegraph message to the Royal Prince Ferdinand. They also prepare two Gypsy delegations – one of them to meet with the Royal Prince, and the other for appointment with the Chairman of the National Assembly. “We are not “inferior race”, insist the Gypsies, “Article 3 of the Voting Law must be alterated”.

A famous journalst, James Baucher, is accredited to this High Forum. As correspondent of ‘Times” of London for the Balkans he lives in Sofia since 1892. Experienced journalist, with a flair for the real news and the sensation, Baucher bombards the redaction of Times of London with articles about the Gypsy Congress. Dr. Markov shows an issue of the world known newspaper to the delegates and translates for them the word “Gypsy”. The dark-skinned run to the nearby hotel “Bulgaria” to express their gratitude to the British man. He is absent but they commission the janitor to pass to him their best wishes.

The correspondent of the American newspaper “Evening Post” of New York also shows a vivid interest. He even asks Dr. Markov to take him around in the new (then) Gypsy living quarter in Sofia. He wants to merge into the authentic atmosphere and thus be able to present it across the ocean where, at this time, the Native Indian issue starts to appear in the limelight.

The Gypsies, show historians, got their name from the river Tzingani in today state of Iran, whose riverbanks they inhabited in antiquity. Between V and X century AD they started to move to settle in different places in the countries of the Near East, and then they continued on their way further to the West. And in this movement of theirs they really pass through Egypt, which is the basis of Dr. Markov to make out the Gypsies to be descendents of the Pharaohs. The Egyptian misconception is in the basis of the word Gypsy which derives from Egyptian.

Thus it was….