Azerbaijan: Romani people struggle for daily survival in a discriminatory environment
In the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh, local Romani women say there is no choice but to beg in order to make a living because they continue to face discrimination. Local Romani women have been complaining to reporters for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) that they receive almost no financial support from local authorities, which deny those allegations.
“If the government gave me money for shoes, food and clothes for my children, we wouldn’t need to go out begging,” said Gulpari Mammadova, who initially did not want to speak on camera because she has previously been mistreated by police for speaking to the media. “[The children] see there’s no bread at home, that there’s no food. They go out to beg, they bring some bread and food home. They have to. Should we sit at home and die of hunger?” Mammadova desperately asked RFE/RL.
According to an unofficial estimate, about 10,000 Romani people live in Azerbaijan. Many identify as Kurds, but locals call them “Gypsies”.
Mammadova told RFE/RL that she loves her country. An Azerbaijani flag that she rescued from a garbage can hangs on one of her walls.
The Romani mother told RFE/RL that she has applied for welfare many times for herself and her nine children. “How long should I wait for that money? It doesn’t befit our Azerbaijani Muslim nation that [our children] pull out dry bread from the garbage, wet it and eat it,” she said in tears.
Mammadova also said she hopes her children will take care of her when she is elderly. Azerbaijani Romani people live separately from the majority society.
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The community faces poor living conditions and a severe lack of job opportunities; their children do not attend school, but become beggars. “I live here, but I don’t have gas, I don’t have electricity. […] I have no one but God,” 58-year-old Asmaya Nadirova told RFE/RL, adding that her own children also make a living by begging.
Nadirova told RFE/RL that when she complained to the local authority about the low level of her living conditions, they gave her the equivalent of a few dollars and refused to listen to her after that. “Mothers with many children should be helped on a monthly basis,” the embittered woman said.
A spokesperson for the regional authority in Yevlakh claimed to RFE/RL that the rights of Romani people are protected in the city. “If [Romani people] have problems with electricity or anything else, we contact their representatives and investigate the issues of the complainer and do everything possible to solve the issue,” said Elnara Azizova.
The approach taken by the local authorities toward the problem of begging by Romani children was explained by Azizova as being dealt with through meetings between the police and the Roma. “We’ve invited them many times. They [often lose their temper] at the meetings. We fight with them a lot over begging. We have a commission with the police and the commission is looking into that issue,” the spokesperson said, emphasizing that if Romani parents do want their children to attend school, the authorities support that.
