Mostly, I tweet about other reporters’ or bloggers’ language stories– stories that I am not going to get to but they are worth noting and passing on. This can be dangerous. I often tweet on issues about which I know little. And I do it at speed. Sometimes I mis-convey the story. Sometimes I mis-type a word. Sometimes I misspell. Sometimes, my grammar isn’t great. (Forget tweeting, that all sounds just like regular daily journalism…)

So what happens when you come across a tweet that you would love to RT, but you…just…can’t? You can’t get past the bad spelling or grammar.

There is one solution: instead of RT-ing, you can MT, or write a modified tweet. You correct the spelling, clean up a bit of grammar. You can even amplify a thought or clarify a sloppy piece of writing. Just make sure you write MT. That worked for me, until I heard a conversation on the BBC– a conversation that, in an audio sort of way, I MT’d in this podcast episode (I recut the interview slightly and introduced it differently).

The discussion was between the BBC’s Evan Davis and comedian and serial tweeter (now taking a Twitterbreak) David Schneider. Now Schneider, like many of us, doesn’t have much time for those self-appointed sticklers who roam the internet in search of bad grammar or poor spelling: he calls them peddants (his spelling).

But maybe a grammatical error is part of the communication. A poorly written tweet may tell you that the tweet was written in a hurry. It may indicate that the writer doesn’t care about grammar or spelling. That makes me hesitate.

On the other hand, I’ve been relieved and grateful when my own misspelled tweets have been cleaned up by others…

Otherwise in this week’s pod, it’s all Tamil. This is a language that has more speakers than Italian or Turkish, but there are fears about its future. We hear from a lexicographer who is painstakingly compiling a Tamil dictionary. And we talk to two Indians about a song that has become an internet sensation. Titled Kolaveri Di, it’s sung partly in Tamil, partly in English, and partly in Tanglish, the (now-inevitable) mash-up of the two.

The official Romanian dictionary now uses the term Roma, and now recognizes that the word Gypsy, or Tigan, has a pejorative connotation. Groups that promote Roma rights are celebrating, but many Romanians are against the change — as are some Roma themselves.

In an alley behind a busy farmer’s market in the capital, Bucharest, a Roma man named Aurika said his people call each other Tigan, not Roma.

“For me it’s not a negative word,” he said. “But, if you and I have an argument, and you call me a Tigan, we’re going to have a problem.”

Aurika’s son, Antoni, 11, chimed in.

“I want to be called Roma,” he said, shyly.

His father got angry.

“Why?” he asked. “Because they tell you in school that the Tigan are bad?”

The boy said yes.

“That’s wrong,” Aurika said. “You are both Tigan and a Romanian citizen.”

Such prejudice, anger and linguistic confusion is nothing new in Romania. Some Roma groups have been asking for changes since the early 20th Century. This year they finally got their way.

Monica Busuioc, a linguist at the Romania Academy, is among those who decided to replace the word Gypsy or Tigan with the word Roma. (Photo: Gerry Hadden)

The Romanian Academy, the guardian of the tongue, has officially defined the group as Roma. Behind that big change is tiny Monica Busuioc, an elderly, bespectacled woman who works on the Academy’s fourth floor.

On a recent day, Busuioc sat with the latest edition of the official Romanian dictionary before her. She said it not only recognizes Roma as the correct name of the ethnic group, it makes an equally important modification of the old name, Tigan.

“Before it said, ‘someone with villainous behavior.’ And we added ‘insulting epithet for someone who has uncivilized behavior.’ ”

Busuioc said linguists have no right to remove terms like Tigan from dictionaries, no matter how offensive, because they’re part of history. The word Tigan, she said, appears in documents dating back as early as the 14th Century.

But the Academy can modify definitions to reflect social realities.

“This term was frequently used in proverbs and sayings, and so on. One cannot eliminate this from the Romanian language. A dictionary cannot eliminate a word,” Busuioc said.

Introducing Roma to the dictionary is also offending some Romanians because, in the Romanian language, Roma and Romanian sound a lot alike.

Many Romanians don’t want to be confused with the Roma.

At a Bucharest bus stop, a woman who would said her name was Julia said Roma are dangerous and they give Romanians a bad name, especially overseas. She said her sister is an honest, hard working nurse in Italy.

“Every day, my sister’s coworkers show her articles in the paper saying, look at what you Romanians are doing,” she said. “But what they’re showing her are crimes that the Tigan have committed.”

Ana Avasiuc, a worker with a Bucharest non-governmental organization named Impreuna, said when people refer to the Roma as Tigan, it's further isolating them from mainstream culture

Roma rights groups say this is the attitude they want to change, and taking the term Tigan out of popular usage can help. Ana Avasiuc, with a Bucharest non-governmental organization named Impreuna, said using the word Tigan amounts to linguistic ghettoization.

“I was reading about the Roma community of Baia Mare in central Romania, around which the town hall built a wall that cost 60,000 euros,” she said. “Instead of spending this on things Roma are entitled to get as citizens, it used it to push them as far away from daily life as possible.”

That wall was made of cement. In another Romanian city, officials built one out of metal. The Roma there tore it down and sold the metal for scrap.

These incidents haven’t done much to improve the Roma’s, or Romania’s, image locally or abroad. The question is, can changing a word in the dictionary really change things. Busuioc said she’s not sure.

“I cannot combat the discrimination,” she said. “Only at the level of words. It is a problem to change mentality. Surely the word helped. If they hear Roma, Roma, Roma, instead of Tigan, then the men will begin to use Roma.”

Language needs centuries to change, she said, but you have to start somewhere.

Beyond language, the Romanian government will soon unveil a plan to improve the Roma’s lot, through social integration and jobs programs, improved housing and education for the young.

The European Union has given all member states until the end of the year to come up with plans to improve the Roma’s situation.

People everywhere are moved by the power of Esma Redzepova’s voice.

But now the queen of gypsy music has taken on power of another kind. She was elected to the city council of her hometown Skopje, Macedonia, in 2005. She is currently serving her second four-year term.

“I’m most active on the council in matters concerning physical improvements to the city, for it to be cleaner and more beautiful, “Redzepova said. “I support the construction of public monuments.”

A member of the governing nationalist political party, Redzepova says she is mainly involved in the city’s cultural affairs. She has a long history of working for humanitarian causes, helping orphans, women and Roma war refugees among others.

She has sung more than 2000 charitable concerts. She says working on the city council is an opportunity to serve the public in much the same way.

“I said as a city counselor that we should not have such high salaries and that we should lower them,” she said. “I stood up and said that it is a very beautiful thing that we are able to work for the citizens and make their lives better, for young people and old people, and for pensioners and children. The city has opened playgrounds and many sports centers.”

Her political career hasn’t really affected her music she says. But her music and some 15, 000 performances around the world, she says, have given her a global perspective, which she brings to the council. She also wants to serve her country. Ethnic Roma minorities face severe discrimination in most countries, and Redzepova says Macedonia is one of the few places were they are not forced to assimilate.

“I think everyone should consider Macedonia as a model for how countries deal with their Roma populations,” she said. “When I travel abroad to perform, people say, ‘oh, you are very lucky, you are born in Macedonia where Roma have a lot of rights.’ They are not mistreated. A roma can go anywhere, without any limits. no one will ever say to you ‘hey, you Gypsy, what are you doing here?’ People here live in the most normal way.”

Redzepova’s smile radiates much like her voice. She wears big gold earrings and each finger and toe nail is painted in a different bright color. A star since childhood, Esma, as she is known, was a favorite of the socialist-era dictator Marshal Tito. She represented Yugoslavia at official high-profile state events around the world.

“I have been composing since I was 9 years old when i made “chaje shukarije,” the most famous Romani song in the world,” Redzepova said. “There is no wedding or joyful occasion anywhere in the Balkans where they do not sing it. Many musicians from all over the world want to record cover versions.”

“Chaje Shukarija” means “beautiful girl” in Romani language and tells a story of unrequited love. After more than five decades of singing, she’s still getting rave reviews.

“I haven’t changed my style,” she said. “I’ve used the same ornaments since I was little, and continue to do so now; the only difference is that now my voice is more mature, my voice is more beautiful. Because I’m getting older, I know better what to do with my voice.”

Despite the collapse of her beloved Yugoslavia and the coming of the free market to the Balkan music business, Esma has stuck with her trademark sound. She said she hopes the Balkans becomes better known for the beauty of its music than for the bitterness of its wars.

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That community is called Shutka, located near the border of Kosovo. It has more than 25,000 residents, its own Roma mayor, TV and radio stations.

So, name this former Yugoslav republic on the Balkan peninsula.

The answer is Macedonia.

In most Roma communities, people live in poverty and have little political power but in Macedonia, Roma participate in a range of public institutions.

And they own and operate one of the only private Roma-language television stations in Europe. Matthew Brunwasser visited the lively neighborhood of Shutka and sent us this report:

When people think of Roma communities, they usually think of scenes like this one: a wedding procession passing through Shutka’s dirty streets.

The small shabby buildings have a rough, do-it-yourself feel. But it makes the place much more homey than many East European neighborhoods, with their endless rows of identical apartment blocks. Another special quality of Shutka is the Roma’s love of music. It is an ethnic stereotype but its also a major component of Roma culture.

One of Shutka’s most famous daughters is Esma Redzhepova. Known around the world as the Queen of Gypsy music. She’s famous for her voice and her lifelong dedication to music and humanitarian causes. She says that Shutka is special because Roma are treated better in Macedonia than elsewhere. Unlike other countries, Macedonia doesn’t force Roma to accept the majority culture and language.

“We are not assimilated and this is a very beautiful thing,”Redzhepova said. “Macedonia has done us a great favor by not assimilating us. They let us speak Romani normally, everywhere, wherever you want. You can study in Romani. Nobody gets in your way and tells you what to do. I don’t think there is any other country which is more democratic. Look, we have two Romani TV stations, we report our own news, we have a daily newspaper, and they do whatever they want.”

At Shutel television, it’s a quiet news day. News director Ramush Muarem is reading the news headlines in Romani language. Shutel is one of the few private Roma-owned and operated Romani language television channels in Europe. It broadcasts on national cable systems – and the Internet – and produces news and feature programs. While almost all Roma here speak Macedonian, director Muarem says its important for Shutel to broadcast in Romani language.

“We are the protagonists,” said Muarem. “The television itself aims to promote within the Roma people their own culture, ethnic identity, traditions, moral values and their own self-worth.”

A staff member reads “dedications” sent by family members to a relative to congratulate them on getting married. The camera films a photograph of the wedding couple taped to the wall. Its a pretty low-tech operation.

Muarem edits the newscast, including his own, as well as managing reporters, the production team and updating the website.

Muarem says Roma in Shutka and Macedonia are more politically organized than in other countries so they have managed to do many things on their own. In addition to TV stations, many Roma are in high positions, including deputies in parliament and a government minister.

Shutka might well be better off than most Roma communities, but it’s still very poor and undeveloped. In one of Shutka’s many simple cafes, Deputy Mayor Adnan Memed tells me that Roma communities lag far behind others in terms of education, income and infrastructure. And there’s still a long way to go.

“We can’t just wait for the state to help us, here in the Balkans or anywhere else in Europe,” says Memed. “Roma are too dependent on the government, in terms of social welfare or humanitarian activities. We have to enter more deeply into more public institutions in order to manage and finance our own development.”

As an example of Roma exclusion, he mentions the Macedonian government’s current nationalist statue-building craze, raising public monuments to a cast of heroes from Alexander the Great to 19th Century Balkan rebels. Memed says the Shutka authorities had to come up with their own plan, to honor the brothers Ramzi and Hamid, Roma who died fighting with the Partisans in World War II.

“We are going to make a bust where the brothers Razmi and Hamid will be,” said Memed. “Now this might not sound good, but we are waiting for the first Roma MP in the Macedonian parliament, Mr. Abdi Faik to die, and then we are going to place a bust of him here too. We dont have have that many people about whom we can say: ‘hey everyone, here is one of our people, let’s make a bust of him.’”

Macedonia recently took over the rotating leadership of the Roma Decade of Inclusion, a commitment by 12 European governments to improve Roma living conditions and social status. Roma hope Macedonia’s policy will provide an example to europe to give Roma more say in running their own affairs.

Trumpet player Angel Tichaliev remembers hearing a lot of brass bands back in the old days. But they’re long gone. The older masters started dying; popular tastes changed.

In the Balkans, music has been dominated by Roma or Gypsies for centuries. Since the end of communism, the coming of the free market has meant that much traditional Roma music has been squeezed out by more profitable genres.

Hoping to resurrect the tradition, Tichaliev founded the Karandila Orchestra. But that wasn’t enough. So he built a music room in his house for local children. And he created another ensemble – for kids – to pass on the musical traditions.

“Karandila Junior” was born.

“I hope to God they will go to the conservatory and educate themselves later on, so this tradition can continue,” Tichaliev said. “That’s why I’m doing this, because it hurts me to see this type of music dying.”

The band is made up of young gypsy musicians from Sliven, the gypsy capital of Bulgaria. The gypsy ghetto where the kids live is called “Nadejda,” Bulgarian for “hope.”

Karandila Junior is already winning fans around Europe. The band recently wrapped up their first album.

Tichaliev said their repertoire is made of modernized old songs from their great grandfathers. “We don’t play them like we did 20 or 30 years ago,” he said, “we put in jazz elements and change the harmony. A traditional song, for example, is changed by about 50-60 percent.”

Karandila Junior has 17 members aged ten through eighteen. Through rigorous practice and Tichaliev’s leadership, they get something young Roma rarely find anywhere else in Bulgarian society: Discipline and high expectations.

Nikolai Yordanov is sixteen and plays tenor saxophone. He said he can’t imagine doing anything besides playing music. And, Yordanov loves to perform on stage.

“I pick up the mood of the audience too,” he said. “It feels great, for the people to applaud when you are on stage. They ask for an encore. Then you bow in front of them and play another song. That’s the coolest part for me.”

The song “Yurush” was recorded last year at the Ost Club in Vienna, Austria. And Yordanov said there are other jazz clubs where he’d like to perform. “I want to play in New York in some famous jazz club,” he said, “that’s my dream, because I love jazz and want to be a great jazz musician.”

When Angel Tichaliev was in school, there were few educational opportunities for Roma musicians. But today’s youth have options. And he hopes to inspire the members of Karandila Junior to continue their education in a musical high school, conservatory or university. Only then, he said, would the Gypsy neighborhood called “hope” really live up to its name.

Karandila Junior’s album “Ghetto Hope” is scheduled for release on December 9th.
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Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Ethnic Roma, or gypsies, have never been treated well in Europe. France in particular has made a policy of its antagonism toward the group. The government has deported more than 8,000 Roma migrants back to Bulgaria and Romania this year alone. The expulsions have been popular in France. But some European Union officials accuse France of violating European laws that guarantee free movement and ban racial discrimination. Matthew Brunwasser tells us how Roma are integrating, or failing to integrate, in Sliven, Bulgaria. That’s the city with the highest proportion of Roma in the country.

MATTHEW BRUNWASSER:  Roma culture resists integration in mainstream society. Roma tend to mistrust state institutions. So Bulgarian cities train health mediators like Margaritsa Hristova to improve Roma’s access to care.

MARGARITSA HRISTOVA:  We are visiting one of our patients. I’m working as a health mediator and I have to check if everything is alright with my patients.

SPEAKING BULGARIAN

BRUNWASSER: Hristova’s chatting with a young Roma mother name Maya Alekova. Hristova asks Alekova if she’s kept up her twelve dollar monthly state health insurance payments. Alekova says no, money’s tight these days.

SPEAKING BULGARIAN

BRUNWASSER: Alekova says she appreciates the health mediator’s concern, but in general, she says, Bulgarian care givers treat her and other gypsies like second class human beings. For example, when she goes to the hospital.

SPEAKING BULGARIAN

MAYA ALEKOVA: I always make sure I’m very well dressed and the child too, or else they’ll throw us out. Especially if the child is a little dirty, that would be the end of us. When we are waiting in line and if some Bulgarian comes up from behind, the doctor tells us “Hey you guys, hold on.”

BRUNWASSER: And Alekova says she has nowhere to turn to object.

SPEAKING BULGARIAN

ALEKOVA: Where can I go to complain? I don’t know. Me, a gypsy woman, complain? Who would listen to me? I’m a no one to them.

BRUNWASSER: Part of the problem is communication. Many Gypsies speak Roma as their first language. Sometimes their Bulgarian is poor. Then there is another problem. Romas traditionally place little emphasis on health awareness. Margarita Hristova, the health mediator, says gypsies often not only can’t explain what’s ailing them, they don’t know.

HRISTOVA:  They don’t know the part of the bodies. They don’t know the organs. What organs, where is, what is the function of this organ. So I’m trying to explain the problem.

BRUNWASSER: Most Roma here in Sliven live in the Nadezhda ghetto. It has its own parallel state and city institutions, such as a medical clinic, a post office and social services. The idea is to give Roma less reason to leave. But more isolation means less integration. This school is on the other side of town. It was one of the first schools in Bulgaria to participate in a national desegregation campaign. Nikolai Stefanov is a coordinator of the Roma youth organization in Sliven. He says the United States was the model for the desegregation program in Bulgaria.

SPEAKING BULGARIAN

NIKOLAI STEFANOV: Americans have accepted African Americans in the same way that Bulgarians are learning to accept us Roma. In the same way you now have President Barack Obama, who has dark skin. It’s a very long process. It has to start from somewhere.

BRUNWASSER: First grade teacher Dora Ivanova has had Roma in her classroom for the past ten years. She says, like it or not, Bulgarians and Roma will have to live together. Ivanova says she has noticed improvements among the Roma children. She says the Roma in her class last year learned to read, write from dictation and do math.

SPEAKING BULGARIAN

DORA IVANOVA: 15 or 20 years ago there was none of this. They were massively illiterate, without any elementary habits of hygiene or social behavior. At moments, I felt desperate. At moments, I felt like I’ve reached the end. At moments, I’ve even hated them.

BRUNWASSER: It’s true that some of the Roma bussed in, from the poorest part of the ghetto, have never seen soap, a sink or a decent toilet before. School Director Diana Kuneva says desegregation is a big job, and integrating Roma into Bulgarian life can be one-step forward, two steps back.

SPEAKING BULGARIAN

DIANA KUNEVA: What we’ve succeeded in building here, even for a little while, becomes very fragile when they return to their home environment and some things are lost. We have to start over from the beginning when they come back here. That’s why it takes a lot of time. Desegregation is not only a problem for the schools. It needs to be a process for the whole society.

BRUNWASSER: But some elements of Bulgarian society actively oppose desegregation. For example, the far-right Ataka political party has won seats in parliament by keeping ethnic tensions high. Few in Sliven expect things to get better before they get worse. For The World, I’m Matthew Brunwasser, Sliven, Bulgaria.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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• Multimedia: Gerry Hadden’s photos from France
• BBC video: France rejects UN Roma criticism

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: In France, the crackdown against gypsy – or Roma – people continues.  Police have been raiding Roma camps and deporting hundreds of people.  Human rights groups and some European officials question the legality of the crackdown.  But the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy isn’t backing down.  The World’s Gerry Hadden reports from St. Denis, just north of Paris.

GERRY HADDEN: In the shadow of France’s national soccer stadium, some 40 Roma families erect shelters with scrap would and tar paper in a vacant lot.  They’re in a hurry.  There are children here and soon it will be cold.  For ten years, says a Roma man named Ion Zaharia, he and hundreds of other Roma lived in a vast makeshift slum under a nearby bridge.  Then this July the police moved in.

ION ZAHARIA: [SPEAKING ROMA]

HADDEN: He says the cops came early one morning, forcing us from our homes, even pushing old ladies into the street with their batons.  Zaharia says he and several families hid in nearby woods for several days, until local politicians offered them this small urban lot as a temporary solution.  The raid in question predates President Sarkozy’s crackdown.  Zaharia says the Roma here fear the police will return.

Over the last several weeks the Sarkozy government has closed some one hundred Roma camps, and deported nearly a thousand Roma to Romania and Bulgaria, their countries of origin.  The government offers two rationale:  One, that many Roma haven’t found jobs; and two, that they constitute a threat to public security.  French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux announced this week that petty crime around Paris is way up.  That includes panhandling, and he largely blames the Roma.

BRICE HORTEFEUX: [Speaking French]

TRANSLATOR: We are no longer able to turn a blind eye on the reality that any French citizen can identify.  When he or she sees men, women and children begging in horrendous conditions – you know what I’m talking about.

HADDEN: Sarkozy’s conservative government is getting support for its Roma crackdown from far right parties across Europe.  For example, in Hungary, the far right Jobbik party is now calling for special internment camps for Roma there.  The trend, says researcher and Roma expert Lanna Hollo, is worrying.

LANNA HOLLO: It’s a dangerous populist use of stereotypes that stigmatize a group of people based on their ethnic origin.  I mean, this reminds people of pre-World War II days, where you conceived of Roma and gypsies as a problem, and as a security and a criminal problem.

HADDEN: Many Roma are choosing to come out of the shadows and fight the crackdown.  In Bordeaux recently, mostly French Roma blocked a major bridge to protest the camp raids.  And tomorrow in cities across France, Roma will march in massive numbers.  Organizers say it will be the largest collective Roma action in European history.  The Roma are buoyed in part by the European Union.  EU officials have condemned France’s Roma expulsions.  They say French police are violating a law against singling out a particular ethnic group for action.  It also says the French must investigate each Roma individually, on a case by case basis, before deciding whether to deport.

In the northern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers, local authorities are trying to provide an alternative.  They run an experimental project known as Integration Village.  It’s a cluster of neat little yellow houses about the size of shipping containers, with a community center and small outdoor square.  In 2007 Aubervilliers selected a dozen families to live here.  The idea was to get at least some Roma out of their camps, and give them a taste of mainstream life.  They get help finding jobs, help with school for their kids. And they pay only about 70 dollars a month in rent.  Roma resident Bodika Comer says he’s found work as a gardener.

BODIKA COMER: [SPEAKING FRENCH]

HADDEN: “It’s very nice here,” he says.  “My wife has also found work.  Everyone’s working.”  And virtually all of the kids are in school.  But there is one thing about Integration Village that rubs many Roma the wrong way.  The security.  No one gets in our out of this enclave without a pat-down by the ever-present guards stationed at the entrance.  After 10 p.m., it’s no visitors at all.

Back at the temporary Roma camp under construction in Saint Denis, an elderly man named Marcel Zaharia says he’d rather be in this abandoned lot and free, than under constant guard in a nicer house.

MARCEL ZAHARIA: [SPEAKING ROMA]

HADDEN: He says, “We swung by Integration Village one night because we wanted to have coffee with our brother, who lives inside.  But the guard at the door wouldn’t even let him come out to see us, not even to talk to us outside on the street.  They’re locked down under curfew.  That’s not right,” he says.  “Freedom of movement is part of Roma culture.”  Then he stands and begins to shovel rubble from one small corner of the lot.  “This is where my house will be,” he says.

For The World, I’m Gerry Hadden in Saint Denis, France.

WERMAN: You can see Gerry’s pictures of the Roma people he spoke with in his report, at theworld.org.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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• Dolapdere Big Gang
• Video: Dolapdere Big Gang

Singer Emir Yeshil is Turkish, the only member of the group who is not Roma, or Gypsy. Most of the group lives in Dolapdere, an Istanbul neighborhood with a rough reputation.

YESHIL: Its also where the gypsy musicians live, they call it as a music factory. and the best musicians of turkey mostly come out from dolapdere.

The band got started about five years ago.

YESHIL: They first called it dolapdere big band, as in a jazz band, like big band, because there were like 10 people in the band, but then some newspaper wrote it wrong. they said dolapdere big gang.

The band liked the mistake, with its vague hint at Roma criminality. So they kept the name. Part of the band’s mission is to celebrate the musical traditions of Dolapdere and Turkey.

Here’s a Turkish-Roma twist to the 1986 rock epic by the Swedish band Europe. The final countdown.

YESHIL: Turkish traditional music is huge, there are 12 notes and one octave in normal western music, and in Turkish music, every half note has 9 different notes too, and there are maybe 500 scales in Turkish music, and we are trying to show the world.

YESHIL: “We do a lot of these things in our music, maybe in the beginning or the end, but it still comes to the point that you understand what turkish music is all about, no harmony, no nothing, just melodic instruments and percussion instruments. ”

Dolapdere uses traditional turkish instruments that you don’t hear much in pop music. The kanun is like a zither, played with picks. Then there’s the tambur, which looks like a long-necked lute. The band also has a clarinet and violin. Not your standard pop ensemble.

Emir Yeshil says a big difference between western and oriental music is the rhythm. Dolapdere likes to switch back and forth between western and Turkish rhythms in the same song… like this 9/8 rhythym. In the song sex bomb.

YESHIL: The rhythm makes you feel a little confused, when you first hear it, you can not clap to it, you can not understand where it starts, you have to listen to maybe 4 or 5 times and then you get the idea

Listeners are getting the idea. The group is playing for an increasingly diverse public these days, in western europe and the former soviet union, as well as here in Turkey. The bands third album is due out in March and Yeshil says there’ll be a bit more rock, drums and guitar. Whatever comes out of the new mix, Dolapdere clearly knows how to create chemistry between genres.

For the World, Im Matthew Brunwasser in Istanbul.

• Article on Sulukule from The Guardian newspaper
• Podcast: Istanbul, A Past and Future City