The opinions of non-Muslims may also be interesting in explaining the reasons for this evolution among Muslims in the Balkans.
Some time ago I heard about the death of Sajeda Obeid and it really shook me. I discovered her about 6 years ago, and I always used to wonder why she felt so familiar to me even though I couldn’t understand anything she was saying.
Later I found out she was Iraqi, but also from the Dom ethnicity basically cousins of the Roma people in Europe.
May Allah be good to her.
For my part, I have genetic matches with people from all Romani groups.
>^(The MyHeritage test is not the best, but it is useful for finding genetic matches)
I get the impression that this usage mainly exists among Greeks, Albanians, and Turks.
I find it historically frustrating that this term exists almost exclusively in relation to Roma people, even though it has no real connection to their origins. Even those in the Balkans who identify as Egyptian Ashkali have no genuine link to Egypt; they have simply adopted that identity based on how they are perceived by Albanians, in order to better integrate.