Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Constantinople's Gypsies Not Welcome in Istanbul - TIME

"Constantinople's Gypsies Not Welcome in Istanbul

In the shadow of Byzantine battlements, a gaggle of giggling girls runs back and forth among the dilapidated houses, stopping occasionally to expertly shimmy their hips and twirl their wrists. They're chased by several whooping boys, who inevitably catch them and haul them off to "jail," a spot by a wall. The gypsy children of Istanbul's impoverished Sulukule neighborhood — home to the world's oldest Roma communities — call this game Cops and Bellydancers, a homespun version of Cops and Robbers amended to reflect their own experience of being born into a life of dancing and dodging the police."

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