The Turkish government is preparing a new action plan for the rights of Romani citizens, Family and Social Services Minister Derya Yanık announced Thursday, as a public agency held its first edition of the Romani Rights Summit.

Yanık said the plan, in five chapters including education, employment, health care, accommodation, social services and social aid, aims to improve the lives of Romani citizens.

The community, scattered across the country, is among disadvantaged communities who complain about discrimination and lack of employment.

Turkish Human Rights and Equality Agency (TİHEK) hosted the summit in the capital Ankara with the participation of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) serving the community, academics, human rights activists and representatives of public agencies.

Yanık said that the government was designing special social policies based on the needs of every social community "to empower social justice," and it was important for them "to put a smile on the faces of our Romani citizens."

The minister noted that the government had already run an action plan between 2006 and 2021 for the community, and it was being renewed "to heighten living standards of the community, particularly for their full social inclusion, raising awareness against prejudice and possible discrimination toward them." Yanık noted that they also established a mechanism exclusively for the community to implement actions to improve their rights.

She said that they launched workshops in the past two years in the cities with a high population of Romani citizens, with the participation of NGOs and the data they derived from those workshops would shape their action plans. She highlighted that they also set up Social Solidarity Centers (SODAM) in places with a high Romani population to support their social integration, socio-cultural, and psycho-social developments as well as give them vocational training options. "These centers primarily cater to women and children. We run family education programs, literacy classes and vocational training courses. We help them to find employment. For working mothers, we provide daycare services. Our programs to curb early marriages, crime rate and domestic violence, as well as drug addiction towards the disadvantaged communities also continue," she stated.

"We are working incessantly for their access to all rights but we should bear in mind that the real motivation to fully ensure their inclusion into shared living culture is raising social awareness and mutual understanding," she added.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a beloved figure for the community as the first leader to openly acknowledge the problems they faced and for his efforts to end discrimination, sent a written message to the summit. Erdoğan noted that hate speech and discrimination toward the community increased worldwide, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Romani culture should be supported. Against discrimination, we have to adopt the mindset of togetherness and fraternity," he said.

"I expect all the institutions of the state to demonstrate utmost sensitivity to preserve the Romani culture and address the problems of our Romani brothers and sisters. I believe this summit will serve as a guide to that extent," the president also said.