Florin Cioabă

Florin Cioaba, at the Astra Film Festival 2012 in Sibiu

Florin Tănase Cioabă (born November 17, 1954 in Târgu Cărbuneşti , Gorj County , Romania ; † August 18, 2013 in Antalya , Turkey ) was a Romanian representative of the Roma ethnic group . He was pastor of his own Pentecostal congregation , self-proclaimed "International King of the Roma" and most recently President of the International Roma Union .

Life

Cioabă was born in 1954 in the small town of Târgu Cărbuneşti in Wallachia in the south of the country . In 1962 the family moved to Transylvania and settled in Sibiu , in the Neppendorf district , which at the time was mainly inhabited by rural residents and Transylvanian Saxons , as they hoped for better living conditions in this multi-ethnic environment. His father Ion Cioabă was the " Bulibascha " leader of this Roma clan from the Kalderash group and over time developed into a respected advocate among the country's Roma. Florin was married to his wife Marica in an arranged marriage at the age of only 14 . After the revolution , the family did good business with scrap metal dismantling the obsolete communist industrial facilities. Motivated by the new prosperity, the father Ion Cioabă declared himself king of the Roma in 1992, claiming that his family had been one of the leading bulibaschas in the region since the 19th century. When the father died in 1997, Florin Cioabă took over this position. The self-conferred royal title and the pompous public appearance, including with a golden crown and scepter, attracted a lot of media interest. Florin Cioabă was repeatedly visited and interviewed by both Romanian and foreign television teams when Roma issues were on the political agenda of the day. He knew how to make good use of this media attention and to present himself as a nationally known advocate of the Roma and thus gained more and more respect and approval from his own ethnic group. From 1996 to 2000 Cioabă was a member of the Sibiu County Council. In 2000 he ran for the small party Centrului Creştin al Romilor (Christian Center of the Roma) for the office of mayor of Sibiu, but lost the election against the candidate of the German minority Klaus Johannis . In 2008 he ran again in the local elections for the party Alianța pentru Unitatea țiganilor (Alliance for the unity of the Gypsies), but could not achieve a mandate.

In the first years of his “reign” Florin Cioabă caused scandals again and again, especially through the dispute with his rival Iulian Rădulescu , a Bulibascha of the Kalderash who was also resident in Sibiu and who had proclaimed himself Emperor of the Roma . The conflict between the two has been reported repeatedly in the Romanian media. In addition to personal animosity between even distantly related counterparties, played a role that the communities around the family Cioaba the Free Church of Pentecost had converted and a church was built, while the communities around the emperor Rădulescu in the traditional Romanian Orthodox denomination remained was. The ecclesiastical marriage of his daughter Ana Maria Cioabă in 2003 caused a sensation, who was married to 15-year-old Mihai Birita in a large public ceremony when she was only 12 years old. Newspapers at home and abroad reported on it and the incident sparked a heated debate over child marriage among Romanian Roma and how the state should govern it. The EU Parliament's rapporteur for Romania at the time, Emma Harriet Nicholson , took the case to the Council of Europe , which reprimanded Romania for allowing such marriages of minors. Later he wanted to forcibly marry his son Dorin. However, he opposed the will of his father and went to Spain for several years. Lessons from the two incidents, Florin Cioabă distanced himself from his behavior at the time of having forced his daughter into marriage at such a young age, and spoke out publicly that the Roma should adapt some of their traditions to modern times, and especially to that Should refrain from marrying minors. His sister Luminița Cioabă , who became known as one of the first Roma writers and who campaigns for the rights of Roma women , also had an influence on this change of opinion .

He gained recognition outside his clans mainly by successfully negotiating with the Romanian government and the Federal Republic of Germany about compensation payments for the persecution suffered during the Second World War under the Antonescu government, allied with Hitler . In order to provide information about this chapter of history, which has been neglected by the Romanian public, he had a documentary produced at his own expense, which told the story of the deportation of his clan to Transnistria . This film, entitled “Adevărul despre Holocaust” (Truth About the Holocaust), was shown at the 2012 Astra Film Festival in Sibiu.

In 2008 he wrote to the government of India asking them to officially recognize the Indian origin of the Roma and to act as a kind of protecting power, similar to what Hungary does for the Hungarian minority in Romania, or Germany for the German minority.

He attracted international attention when he publicly criticized French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009 , who had Romanian Roma deported back to their home country without valid residence papers. In this context, Cioabă was interviewed by ARD television teams as well as for a documentary film production for the television channel ARTE .

In April 2013 the Congress of the International Roma Organization (IRU) took place in Sibiu, where Florin Cioabă was elected President for a term of four years and the well-known Macedonian Roma singer Esma Redžepova was elected Vice-President. A few months later, Cioabă, who had been struggling with heart problems for some time, suffered a serious heart attack while on vacation in Antalya, Turkey . He died a month later in Antalya University Hospital. His body was flown back to Neppendorf with a special machine and buried in a large funeral procession in the family mausoleum at the municipal cemetery in Sibiu. Romanian President Traian Băsescu , who has been friends with the Cioabă family for many years , also attended the funeral .

His son Dorin Cioabă, who had returned from Spain and was reconciled with the family, took over his title as King of the Roma and the role of Bulibasha of his clan.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung: A prominent Roma representative who has made a difference - obituary for "Roma King" Florin Cioabă , by Jürgen Henkel, August 22, 2013
2. ↑ evz.ro: VIAȚA LUI CIOABĂ. "Regele rromilor" făcea parte din gruparea religioasă Adunările lui Dumnezeu. A profitat de legile etniei doar la căsătorie, sa însurat la 14 ani , August 18, 2013 (Romanian)
3. ↑ Mediafax: Florin Cioabă, un "rege" prieten cu președintele și cu trimiterea romilor la școală , August 18, 2013 (Romanian)
4. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald: Wedding of 12-year-old gypsy princess not recognized , October 2, 2003 (English)
5. ↑ Upper Austrian News: Romania's "Roma King" is dead , August 18, 2013
6. ↑ jurnalul.ro: Florin Cioabă: India trebuie să ne recunoască originile , June 13, 2008 (Romanian)
7. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung: The gypsy life is funny - an audience at the court of the king of the Roma in Romania , Panorama, November 14, 2010
8. ↑ arte.tv: Portrait: Florin Cioaba, the King of the Roma  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ unionromani.org: HA MUERTO FLORIN CIOABA - Gitano rumano, Presidente de la Unión Romani Internacional , August 19, 2013 (Spanish)
10. ^ Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung: Cioabă President of the International Roma Organization , April 10, 2013
11. ↑ Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung: "Roma-König" Florin Cioabă died in Turkey - dispute over the 350,000 euro hospital costs , August 19, 2013
12. ↑ Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung: Florin Cioabă's funeral this Friday - President Băsescu and numerous politicians said goodbye , 23 August 2013