Aromanians

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Aromanians (also called: Arumanians or Macedo-Romanians; in Aromanian they call themselves Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are a people living throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Romania (Dobruja). They are the second most populous group of Vlachs, behind modern-day Romanians.

They speak the Aromanian language, a Romance language related to Romanian, sometimes classified as a dialect of it.^[5] Due to the common language foundations, dating from the times of Latin language, historians believe that the language link with Romanian was interrupted between the 7th and 9th century, after the most important features of the Proto-Romanian language were formed.

Contents 1 Names and Classification 2 Origins 3 History 4 Culture 4.1 Traditional Culture 5 Aromanians today 5.1 In Greece 5.2 In Albania 5.3 In the Republic of Macedonia 5.4 In Bulgaria 5.5 In Romania 5.6 In Serbia 5.7 Diaspora 6 Identity crisis 7 See also 8 References and footnotes 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit] Names and Classification

Main article: Names of the Aromanians

The name Armăn - EN Aromanian, just as Romanian, derives directly from Latin Romanus ("Roman") through regular sound changes. Adding "a" in front of certain words that begin with a consonant is a feature of the Aromanian language. In Albania, the most common form is rămăni.

Nominated according to the geographic area, Aromanians are in grouped into several "branches": "Pindians" (concentrated around the Pindus Mountains in the south-western of the Republic of Macedonia, north Epirus, and western Thessaly), "Gramustians" (from Gramos Mountains, concentrated in the western of the Greek province of Macedonia and the northernmost of Epirus), "Muzachiars" (from Muzachia) and "Farserots" (from Pharsala, concentrated in south of Epirus, in Aetolia-Acarnania, area known in the Middle Ages as Small Wallachia). The first three groups call themselves Armâni, while the Farserots (with a distinct dialect) call themselves Rrămăni. All three are called Vlahi in Greek. Vlachs was a term used in the Medieval Balkans, as an exonym for all the Romanic people of the region, but nowadays, it is commonly used only for the Aromanians and Meglenites, the Romanians being named Vlachs only in historical context. Interesting to note that the term Vlach also meant "bandit" or "rebel" in medieval historiography.

The Gramustians and Pindians are nicknamed in Greece Cutsovlachs meaning "limping Vlachs". Another name used to refer to the Aromanians (mainly in the Slavic countries such as Serbia and Bulgaria) is "tsintsar", which is derived from the way the Aromanians say the word 'five': "cinci". Some Vlachs are called "Arvanitoblachoi", meaning Albanian speaking Vlachs, referring to their second language, Albanian instead of Greek. Albanians also call them "Chobans" (from Turkish Çoban meaning shepherd), a word also used to refer to them in Greek ("chobani" "τσομπάνοι").

[edit] Origins

There are many theories regarding the origins of the Aromanians. In Greece, they are believed to be descending from a local Greek population that was Latinised immediately following the Roman conquest of Greece, or later, during the first centuries of the Byzantine Empire when Latin continued to be the official language. On the contrary, in Romania they are considered to be the descendants of Latinised Dacian settlers who emigrated to the south.

In total, the main theories regarding the origins of Aromanians describe them as:

• Descendants of ancient Thracians and/or Illyrians

or

• The descendants of Roman colonizers and soldiers, who would receive agricultural lands as payments for their services.

or

• Latinized Greeks

It is however clear that until the 7th - 9th century, Romanians and Aromanians spoke the same eastern variant of Vulgar Latin, often known as Proto-Romanian.

[edit] History

Main article: History of the Aromanians

In the Middle Ages, Aromanians created semi-autonomous states on the territory of modern Greece, such as Great Wallachia or Small Wallachia.

Aromanians played an important role in the independence wars of various Balkan countries: Bulgaria, Albania and Greece, against the Ottoman Empire.

In 1941, after the Nazi occupation of Greece, some Aromanian nationalists created an autonomous Vlach state under Fascist Italian control: the Principality of Pindus.

[edit] Culture

[edit] Traditional Culture

See also:

• Caloian
• List of prominent Aromanians

To be completed

[edit] Aromanians today

[edit] In Greece

In Greece, Aromanians are not regarded as an ethnic minority, but are considered "Latin-speaking Greeks" (i.e. Greeks that speak a Romance language), as cognate with the Macedonian Slav and Bulgarian minorities which are called "Slavophone Greeks" (i.e. Greeks that speak a Slavic language, or the Arvanites which are called "Albanophone Greeks" (i.e. Greeks that speak Albanian), since none of them express a non-Greek national identity. Generally, the use of the minority languages has been discouraged,^[6] although recently, there have been efforts from the Greek presidency to preserve endangered languages (including Aromanian).

It is difficult to estimate the exact number of Aromanians because of the elusive nature and multiple factors, pertaining mainly to language (see Aromanians#Identity crisis). Estimates on the number of Aromanians in Greece range between 200,000 to 700,000.^[7]

The majority of the Aromanian population lives in northern Greece, in scattered rural communities. The main areas inhabited by these populations are the Pindus Mountains, Meglan, around Lake Prespa, and around the mountains of Olympus and Vermion.

[edit] In Albania

The second largest Aromanian community lives in Albania, counting between 100,000 and 200,000 people. There are currently timid attempts to establish education in their native language in the town of Divjaka. The Aromanians, under the name "Vlachs", are a recognized national minority in the Albanian constitution.

For the last years there seems to be a renewal of the former policies of supporting and sponsoring of Romanian schools on the behalf of the Vlachs of Albania. As a recent article in the Romanian media points out, the kindergarten, primary and secondary schools in the Albanian town of Divjaka where the local Vlach pupils are taught classes both in Aromanian and Romanian were granted substantial help directly from the Romanian government. The only Aromanian language church in Albania, the 'Schimbarea la fata' of Korçë (Curceaua in Aromanian) was given 2 billion lei help from the Romanian government too. Many of the Albanian Aromanians have immigratted to Greece as homogeneis, since they are considered part of the Greek minority in Albania.

[edit] In the Republic of Macedonia

According to official government figures (census 2002), there are 9,695 Aromanians or Vlachs as they are officially called in the Republic of Macedonia, even though other sources estimate their numbers as high as 20,000 or even more than 100.000 according to their associations' and other estimates[5]. The Aromanians are recognized as an ethnic minority, and are hence represented in parliament and enjoy ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious rights and the right to education in their language.

They have also received financial support from the Romanian government, which made recognition of the Republic of Macedonia's independence conditional on the extension of minority rights to the Aromanians.

[edit] In Bulgaria

In Bulgaria most Aromanians were concentrated in the region south-west of Sofia, in the region called Pirin, formerly part of the Ottoman Empire until 1913. After 1913, a massive campaign of bulgarisation started under the auspice of the Bulgarian Government.^{[citation needed]} Due to this reasons, a large part of these Aromanians moved to the Southern Dobruja, part of the Kingdom of Romania since the Treaty of Bucharest of 1913, and after its reinclusion in Bulgaria with the Treaty of Craiova of 1940, moved to Northern Dobruja. Another group moved to northern Greece. Nowadays, the largest group of Aromanians in Bulgaria is found in the southern mountainous area, around Peshtera. Besides Aromanians, in the northern part, Bulgaria also hosts an ethnic Romanian minority, along the Danube, from Vidin to Rousse. To the border with Serbia, there are other groups of Vlachs (see Vlachs of Serbia), who speak a language identical to modern Romanian, although they prefer to call it "Vlach" (see Vlach language (Serbia)).

After the fall of communism in 1989, Aromanians, Romanians and Vlachs have started initiatives to organize themselves under one common association.^[8][9][10]

According to the 1926 official census, there were: 69.080 Romanians, 5.324 Aromanians, 3.777 Cutzovlachs, and 1.551 "Tsintsars".

According to the 2001 census, there are 10,566 Vlachs (Aromanians) and 1,088 Romanians in Bulgaria [6].

[edit] In Romania

Since the Middle Ages, due to the Turkish occupation and the destruction of their cities, such as Moscopole, many Aromanians fled their homeland in the Balkans to settle the Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which had a similar language and a certain degree of autonomy from the Turks. These immigrant Aromanians were more or less assimilated into the Romanian population.

In 1925, 47 years after Dobruja was incorporated into Romania, King Carol II of Romania gave the Aromanians land and privilleges to settle in this region, in order to achieve relative majority of vlach-speakers in a region formerly inhabited mostly by Bulgarians, which resulted in a significant migration of Aromanians into Romania. Today, the 25% of the population of the region are descendants of Greek Aromanian immigrants (especially from Thessaly and Central Macedonia.^{[citation needed]}

There are currently between 25,000 and 50,000 Aromanians in Romania, most of which are concentrated in Dobruja, although Aromanian assosiations place the total number of people of Aromanian descent in Romania as high as 250,000. Due to their cultural closeness to ethnic Romanians, most of them do not consider themselves to be a distinct ethnic minority but rather a "cultural minority"^{[citation needed]}. Recently, there has been a growing movement in Romania, both by Aromanians and by Romanian lawmakers, to recognize the Aromanians either as a separate cultural group or as a separate ethnic group, and extend to them the rights of other minorities in Romania, such as mother-tongue education and representatives in parliament.

[edit] In Serbia

There are currently 15,000 Aromanians in Serbia. The majority of Aromanians in Serbia do not speak Aromanian.

[edit] Diaspora

Except for the Balkan countries, there are also communities and groups of Aromanian emigrants living in the United States, Canada, France and Germany.

In Germany, at Freiburg, is situated one of the most important Aromanian organisations, the Union for Culture and Language of the Aromanians, and one of the largest libraries in Aromanian language.

In the United States, The Society Fărşărotul, is one of the oldest and most known associations of Aromanians, founded in 1903 by Nicolae Cican, an Aromanian native of Albania.

In France, the Aromanians are grouped in the Trâ Armânami cultural association.

[edit] Identity crisis

Aromanians have played an important role in the history of almost all modern Balkan states, especially Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Republic of Macedonia, Romania. Prominent Aromanians include Pitu Guli, also known as "Peter the Vlach", (Bulgarian/Macedonian revolutionary), Ioannis Kolettis (prime minister of Greece), Evangelos Averof (minister of Defence of Greece), Andrei Şaguna (Romanian patriot), the Ghica family (Wallachian and Moldavian voivodes and Romanian Prime Ministers), etc. See List of prominent Aromanians.

But while in most neighbouring countries the separateness of the Aromanian language, culture, history, traditions, and beliefs has been acknowledged to lesser or greater degrees, in Greece there has the development of a Greek identity on the part of many Aromanians, coroborated with a longstanding government-supported process of linguistic assimilation.

Here, besides the geographical/linguistic classification, another classification divides the Aromanians into two branches: an anti-Greek and a philo-Greek faction. The greekophiles have been pejoratively called by the rest of the Aromanians as "grecomani" respective "cataoni", "katchani" or "caciauni". Interesting to note is that the Sarakatsani, according to Romanian scholars, are a tribe of Aromanians, completely Hellenicized sometimes in the 18th and 19th century.

This government supported "Hellenisation" of the minorities of Greece and the Republic of Macedonia, dates back centuries ago, and was noticed by many historians and observers of the Greek society.

Many Aromanians of Greece have locally specific ideas regarding their origin and role in Greek society and history. Many identify themselves as heirs of the Byzantine tradition, and hence consider themselves "Latin-speaking Greeks", while pro-Greek vlachs argue that the Greek language of the Byzantine empire has a bearing on links to Greek culture.

The early history of the Aromanians in Greece includes several struggles, usually for social reasons, and Aromanians in several countries have a tradition of rebellion and penchant for separateness and secession.

Arrived from somewhere to the north as descendants "of the Thracian tribe of Bessi",^[11] they become part of the Byzantine Empire. Since these times, the history of the Vlachs, who were constantly regarded as a nuisance by the Greeks,^[12] whose history was marked by permanent rebellions and struggle against the imperial rule. Great Wallachia existed until 980 when emperor Basil II conferred the domination over the Vlachs of Thessaly on one Nicoulitza. The revolt of the Vlachs in 1066 under their chieftain Verivoi, as attested by the Byzantine historian Kekaumenos, would provide total independence. Nicetas Choniates, Benjamin of Tudela,^[13] Geoffroy de Villehardouin, Henri de Valenciennes, Robert de Clary, and other sources accounts the existence of this Great Wallachia, comprising Thessaly, as opposed to other two "Wallachias", Little Wallachia in Acarnania and Aetolia, and an Upper Wallachia in Epirus. This coincides with the period of the first Vlachian state entities across the Balkan Peninsula: Great Wallachia, the Vlach-Bulgar Empire, Wallachia and Moldavia. Benjamin of Tudela, a Spanish Jew who visited Thessaly in 1173, describes the Vlachs as living in the mountains and coming down from them to attack the Greeks. In relation with the Byzantine Empire, he adds: "no Emperor can conquer them".^[14] Interesting to note that Benjamin of Tudela did not describe them as a separate ethnic group, but as a group of rebels, who may had Jewish origins.

During the Ottoman ruling, Aromanian culture and economic power became more evident, as Vlachs concentrated in urban center, some of which were considered huge, characterized with the standards of those times. For example Moscopole at that time was one of the largest cities of the Balkans, having a population of 60.000. For comparison, at that time Athens was a village inhabited by 8,000 people. Moscopole had its own printing houses and academies, current water and sewerage network. They enjoyed some degree of religious and cultural autonomy within the Greek Orthodox millet (a Turkish term for a legally protected ethnic and religious minority groups). They enjoyed a special status, being formally exempted from the law prohibiting non-Muslims from carrying weapons,^[15] only having to pay a modest tribute to the Ottomans. Their cities were destroyed by the Ottomans: Moscopole was raised to the ground in 1778 by the troops of Ali Pasha. This episode and the Orthodox religion of the Vlachs were the factors which caused a violent and energetic struggle against the Ottomans, assigning to the Vlachs a major role in the various wars and revolutions that culminated in the creation of the states which they now inhabit: Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and the Republic of Macedonia. Later, all of these freedom fighters would have been attributed "Hellenic" reasons in their actions and ideology. There are indeed to be found people of Aromanian origin among the protagonists of early Greek political life, as they found opportunities to establish themselves in this new state. This is explained by the fact that many Aromanians adopted the Greek language under the influence of the Greek schools and churches, the only ones entitled by the Ottomans to function and to by maintained by the Patriarchs of Constantinople (all of whom were of Greek origin). Interesting to note that Patriarch Athenagoras (born during the Ottoman rule in Epirus), was of Aromanian origins, and thus considered a Greek by descent.

Sir Charles Eliot's (British Diplomat to the Porte) contemporary view of the Vlachs identity is clear from work "Turkey in Europe": "...The Bulgarians, Serbs and Vlachs have Millets of their own and do not cooperate in the Hellenic cause" [...] "we hear of Vlach bands who are said to contend (fight against) Greeks in the region of Karaferia (Veria)".^[16] Indeed, as early as the time of the Byzantines when Vlachs raided the lowlands inhabited by the Greeks, and during the time when Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire, Greek Armatoloi (military/police units) deserving the Turks were one of the greatest enemies of the Aromanians. Whereas the Klephts had been their allies.

Following the destruction of their major urban centers, histography^{[citation needed]} speaks about a "re-pastoralization" of the Vlachs, returning to their basic traditional occupation, animal husbandry. Other thousands of Vlachs, many of them belonging to the Aromanian intelligentsia, emigrated northward to Wallachia, Moldavia, Serbia or the Habsburg Empire (notably to Vienna and Budapest).

Their arrival there coincided with the establishment in Europe of the ideals of the 1789-1799 French Revolution: nationhood, equality, mother tongue and "human rights". In the Habsburg occupied Transylvania, they will connect with the latinophile Romanian intelligentsia, as part of what was known as the Transylvanian School. These intellectuals promoted the ideas which would spark the period known as the National awakening of Romania, which, after a century's time ceased to be under de jure Ottoman rule. It is in these times that Aromanian personalities became prominent, such as Gheorghe Roja, the author of "Untersuchungen uber die Romanier oder sogenannten Wlachen, welche jenseits der Donau wohnen" ("Researches upon the Romanians or the so-called Vlachs who live beyond the Danube"; Pesth, 1808). The first attempt to create a literary language for those described as "Macedo-Romanians" was Roja's "Maiestria ghiovasirii romanesti cu litere latinesti, care sant literele Romanilor ceale vechi"(Buda, 1809). Another Vlach emigrant was Mihail G. Boiagi. He would publish in 1813 in Vienna "Gramatica romana sau macedo-romana" (Romanian or Macedo-Romanian grammar). In the foreword to his work, Boiagi wrote: "Even if the Vlachs would claim, say Hotenton origin, even in that case they ought to have the right and duty to cultivate themselves in their mother tongue, as the most appropriate way to fulfill their creed". The Metsovo born D.D. Cozacovici would publish in 1865 "Gramatica Romaneasca tra Romanilii dit drepta Dunarelei lucrata de D. Athanasescu, si typarita cu spesele D.D. Cosacovici, Roman din Metsova, spre an inaugura prima scoala Romana din Macedonia, Bucuresti 1865" ("Romanian Grammar to serve the South of the Danube Romanians worked by Dimitrie Athanasescu and printed from the donations of D.D. Cozacovici, Romanian of Metsovo in order to inaugurate the first Romanian school of Macedonia").

The pressure on Aromanians to become linguistically assimilated can be traced back to the 18th century, when assimilation efforts were encouraged by the Greek missionary Cosmas of Aetolia (1714-1779) who taught that Aromanians should speak Greek because as he said "it's the language of our Church" and established over 100 Greek schools in northern and western Greece. The offensive of the clergy against the use of Aromanian was by no means limited to religious issues but was a tool devised in order to convince the non-Greek speakers to abandon what they regarded as a "worthless" idiom and adopt the superior neo-Greek speech: "There we are Metsovian brothers, together with those who are fooling themselves with this sordid and vile Aromanian language... forgive me for calling it a language", "repulsive speech with a disgusting diction".^[17]

A century later, almost 100 Romanian schools were opened in the Ottoman territories of Macedonia and Albania, starting as early as 1860. It is very important to be noted that this initiative was proposed by the Aromanian Diaspora living in Bucharest. The first nucleus of the Romanian schooling in Macedonia and Pindus was to be established in 1860 and its initiators were a group of Aromanians then living in Bucharest: D.D. Cozacovici (native of Metsovo), Zisu Sideri, Iordache Goga (native of Klissoura) and others. Together they initiated the "Society for Macedo-Romanian Culture", under the endorsement of the then Romanian ruling class. "Societatea Culturala Macedo-Romana" ("The Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society") had as its members (together with its Aromanian founding core represented by D.D. Cozacovici, Sideri, Goga, Grandea etc.) also the acting Prime and Foreign Ministers, as well as the Head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, and the elite of the Romanian political class: Mihail Kogălniceanu, Ion Ghica, Constantin Rosetti, etc.

At their peak, just before the Balkan wars, there were 6 secondary gymnasiums, and 113 primary schools, teaching in Romanian. Greeks didn't saw these schools with a good eye. The city of Metsovo (Aminciu in Aromanian) was destroyed in 1854 not only by Turkish forces, but also by the Greeks,^[18] and the Romanian school in the village of Avdhela in Pindus, which was one of the first Romanian schools, active as early as 1867, was burned and raised to the ground on October 27th 1905 by Greek guerrillas.^[19] This event prompted street anti-Greek demonstrations in Bucharest in the autumn of 1905 of the Aromanians living there, and a rupture of diplomatic relations between Romania and Greece.^[20]

Romania subsidized schools until 1948 when the communist regime ended all links. George Padioti, an Aromanian author (born and living all his life in Greece) describes how the last Romanian school was closed down by the Greek government:

“

February 1952, the Aromanian Church 'Biserica ramana Santu Dumitru', burned by German troops in spring 1944. The priest Costa Bacou officiated the last allowed liturgy in Aromanian language. Afterwards, he was not permitted anymore because he refused to forcibly officiate the divine service in Greek language.[21]

”

Greek historians, when mentioning the Vlachs that attended the Romanian sponsored churches and schools of Macedonia, Epirus and parts of Albania, describes them as being victims of Romanian propaganda, for the reason that they sent their children to schools where they were taught that they are Romanians.

Due to the sponsoring of the schools, the Kingdom of Romania of was accused by Greece^{[citation needed]} of alliance with the Ottomans. The Vlachs, recognized as a separate nation by the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, were for the first time incorporated in Greece only at 1881 when Thessaly and a part of Epirus were offered to Greece by the Great Powers, under the same treaty. Having been split into two by the new borders, the bulk of the Vlachs of these province petitioned^[22] the Great Powers of the time to be let to stay within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire, but in vain. Greece followed a policy of creating a Greater Greece, according to the "Megali Idea". Most of the Aromanians became part of the Greek state only as recently as 1913 after the rest of Epirus and parts of Macedonia became part of Greece after the First Balkan War.

Roughly at the same time, the first objective and scientific works regarding the Aromanians were made by western observers. Among these, names like Rebecca West, Osbert Lancaster or Sir Charles Eliot's are worth to be mentioned. Lancaster, who visited Greece in 1947, stated:

“

Although Metsovo, with its gigantic plane tree in the middle of the little square, its stone paved streets and abundant gardens, is typical of many a village in Epirus, in respect of its inhabitants it is unique. The Vlachs, to which race this people belong, are nomads, claiming with some degree of probability descent from the Roman colonists of the Danube valley. In former times they were far more numerous than to-day, occupying the larger part of Thrace and Macedonia and establishing in the twelfth century a Bulgaro-Vlach empire in Thessaly which survived in practical independence until the coming of the Turk. Although for the most part herdsmen, horse-breeder and shepherds following their beasts from pasture to pasture and living in temporary encampments of round wattle huts, the existence of urban settlements, of which Metsovo is the most considerable, would seem to afford evidence that, their nomadism is not natural but acquired. In general they are fairer in complexion and more industrious in their habits than the Greeks whom they affect to despise.[23] The Vlachs, this very interesting people are not Greek at all but a race of nomads, who come down from the Balkan lands in the winter with their flock and pass the cold months in Greece. They are shepherd by business, and their tribal name has become a sort of synonym for an ancient profession. Generally they are a people as kindly as they are picturesque, patriarchally hospitable and good sportsmen, as many an English Consul knows, and by no means ill favoured[24]

”

The interbellic time period is of great interest regarding the Aromanian history. The main event was the immigration of the Aromanians in the first decades of the 20th century,. One of the reasons for the sudden departure of the Vlachs, had to do with the policies of the Greek state, who had to accommodate one and a half million of Greeks of Asia Minor following the 1923 exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey. In addition, the Romanian state had offered them land and privilleges, in order to populate its new province of Dobruja, soon after annexing it from Bulgaria. The 25% of the region's population still traces its origins in Greece.

The last important act for non Greek-ruling constitutes the Principality of Pindus episode. During World War II, the Italian attack on Greece provided an opportunity for some Aromanians to create what they called "Vlach homeland". This fascist puppet state would survive until 1947, when it would be reincorporated in Greece. When referring to this moment, modern Greek histography describes the Aromanians as victims of Romanian "agents", which infiltrated Greece to spread "Italo-Romanian Propaganda".

Aromanians today come after more than 50 years after the closure of the last school and church in the Romanian language. The old term "Vlach" is still used as a "pejorative" by Greeks,^[25] but the modern term denoting vlach, "vlahos", has become quite separate. It was after the Regime of the Colonels when the first local cultural organizations were formed to prevent the extinction of the language and culture. These organisations never had government support. Aromanian language had never been included in the educational curriculum of Greece, as it had always been a vulgar tangue. On the contrary, their use has been strongly discouraged. Such attitudes have led many Vlach parents to discourage their children from learning their mother tongue so to avoid similar discrimination and mistreatments..^[26] Currently there is no education for Aromanian children in their mother tongue, and there are no public televisions or radio-stations emitting fully or partially in Aromanian.

The European Parliamentary Assembly examined a report on the Aromanians in 1997 which reported the critical situation of the Aromanian language and culture (see the report), and adopted a recommendation (see recommendation) that the Greek government should do whatever is necessary to respect their culture and facilitate education in Aromanian and to implement it’s use in schools, churches and the media. The Panhellenic Federation of Aromanians rejected any idea of an officially-sanctioned distinction between them and the other Greeks. On the other hand, there is a small minority within the community which strongly supports such efforts. On a visit to Metsovo, Epirus in 1998, the Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos called on Aromanians to speak and teach their language, so as not to be lost. To this day there are no schools or churches which teach or hold service in Aromanian language. Referring to this incident, Panayote Elias Dimitras, from the Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group stated:

“

Greek society and the vast majority of Greek intellectuals have yet to come to terms with the fact that Greece is not a homogenous society; that one can be a Greek citizen but have a non-Greek ethnonational identity..(..)For almost all Greeks, Greek citizens can freely enjoy their cultural diversity as long as they have strong Greek ethnonational identity and seek no minority status. This is how hundred of thousands of Albanian-speaking Arvanites and Aromanian-speaking Vlachs have been "successfully" incorporated in (i.e. assimilated by) modern Greek national culture: they have been showing a strong, even extreme, degree of attachment to Greek nationalism, in exchange for which they have been allowed to keep their oral but never written or taught, ethnolinguistic "sensitivities". It requires a very sustained effort for the few "multiculturalist of Greece, which include even some government ministers, to dispel this ugly image of Greek "national" policy that can be summarized in a choice between assimilation or discrimination.

”

Yet despite that many Aromanians nowadays identify themselves as Greeks, to this day, a small segment of the native Vlach inhabitants of Greece still identify themselves as a separate ethnic group than the Greeks. This appears to be the case of the more remote villages of Pindus, where, sheltered somehow from contact with the dominant Greek culture, the older generation of the Vlachs remains faithful to their language and customs. As Dr. Thede Kahl points out in his study "Ethnologica Balkanica ("The Ethnicity of Aromanians after 1990: the Identity of a Minority that Behaves like a Majority")":

“

There are still pro-Romanian Aromanians in Greece, especially in villages in which strong Romanian communities were once accepted by the Greek authorities, above all in Avdhela, Perivoli, Samarina, Vovusa, Krania, Edessa, Veria and surrounding areas, as well in a few villages in the district of Kastoria and Ioannina. On a whole, they are a minute and dwindling number of Aromanians.[27]

”

The identity problem can also be illustrated by the Sotiris Bletsas case [7][8] . Bletsas distributed copies of EBLUL material covering linguistic minorities in Greece at an Aromanin festival held in Greece in 1995. He was put on trial on the 2nd of February, 2001 and was first convicted, to be eventually set free on the 18th of October, 2001.^[28]

[edit] See also

• Vlachs
• List of prominent Aromanians
• History of Aromanians

[edit] References and footnotes

Inline

General

• Adina Berciu Drăghicescu – "Românii din Balcani : cultură şi spiritualitate. Sf. Sec. XIX-începutul sec. XX"; Ed. Globus, Bucureşti 1996;
• Theodor Capidan, "Macedoromânii-Etnografie, Istorie, Limbă"; Bucureşti 1942;
• George Murnu - "The History of Romanians of Pindus - Great Wallachia" (1913, re-edited in 1984 by N. Şerban-Tanasoca);

[edit] Further reading

• Capidan, Theodor (1932) Aromânii. Dialectul aromân, Academia Româna
• Friedman, Victor A., "The Vlah Minority in Macedonia: Language, Identity, Dialectology, and Standardization" in Selected Papers in Slavic, Balkan, and Balkan Studies, ed. Juhani Nuoluoto, Martii Leiwo, Jussi Halla-aho. Slavica Helsingiensa 21. University of Helsinki, 2001. online
• Koukoudis, Asterios I. - The Vlachs: Metropolis and Diaspora, ISBN 960-7760-86-7
• Baldaci - "The Romanians of Albania"(1924);
• Ioan Caragiani - "Historical studies about the Romanians of the Balkan Peninsula" (1891, re-edited in 1941), * Apostol Margarit - "Etudes historiques sur les Valaques du Pinde" - Constantinople (1880) and "Les Grecs, * Les Valaques, et les Albanais de l'Empire Ottoman" - Bruxelles (1886);
• V. Papacostea - "Aromanian Documents" (1860 - 1870);
• Epaminonda Balamace - "How were established the first Romanian schools of Albania" (1922);
• George Zuca - "Study on the economy of the Aromanians of Pindus" (1906);
• P. Papahagi - "Aromanian Speeches" (1905) and "The popular literature of the Aromanians " - (1900) - Vol. I & II);
• Tache Papahagi - "The Lexicon of the Aromanian Dialect" (1963, revised in 1974), "Images d'ethnographie roumaine et aroumaine" (3 vols.) - Bucharest 1928-1934);
• Valeriu Papahagi - "The Aromanians of Moschopole" (1935);
• Th. Capidan - "The Farseroti - Linguistical study on the Romanians of Albania" (1935), "The Nomadic Romanians" Cluj (1926), "The Megleno-Romanians - Their history and speech" (vol. I) and "Their popular literature" (vol. II) - Bucharest 1925 - 1928);
• G. Papacostea-Goga - "Macedo-Romanian awakening" (1924);
• N. Zdrulla - "The movements of the Aromanians of Pindus" (1922);
• V. Diamandi-Aminceanu: "The Romanians of the Balkan peninsula" - Bucharest 1938;
• D. Caracosta - "Miorita la Aromani/Pastoral Ballades of the Aromanians – 1927;
• Matilda Caragiu-Marioteanu - "Glota und Ethos der Aromunen" (1971);
• A. N. Haciu - "The Aromanians - Comerce, Arts, Expansion, Civilization" - Putna (1936);
• C. Noe - "Les Roumains Koutzo-Valaques" - Bucharest (1913);
• N. Saramandu - "Le parler Aromun" - Bucharest (1979);
• P. N. Vaidomir - "Contributii la istoria Romanilor sud Dunareni" - Medias (1943);
• N. Batzaria - "Istoricul fundarii orasului Crusova" - (1904), Marcu Beza - "Paper on Rumanian People" (London - 1920);
• H. Candroveanu - "Caleidoscop Aroman" (1999);
• C. Burileanu - "Visiting the Romanians of Albania";
• Ioan Arginteanu - "The History of the Macedo-Romanians" (1904);
• N. Densusianu et F. Dame - "Les Roumains du Sud. Macedoine. Epirus. Thessaly" - Paris (1877), E.M. Picot - "Les roumains de la Macedoine" - Paris (1875);
• O. Randi -"Il fenomeno degli Aromuni" - Zara (1939);
• A. Rubin - "Les Roumains de Macedoine" (1913);
• B. Stuart - "The Vlakhs of Mount Pindus" - London (1868);
• R. Suster - "I Romeni del Pindo" - Roma (1930);
• Xenopol - "Une enigme historique: Les Roumains au Moyen Age" Paris 1885 (focusing largely upon Aromanians);
• Tereza Stratilesco - "From Carpathian to Pindus" - Boston (1907, re-printed 1981);

[edit] External links

• Bana Armâneascâ, an Aromanian newspaper
• Trâ Armânami.org - Association des Francais Aroumains
• The Folklore Association of Vlahs (Armani) in Veria
• vlachophiles.net: Aromanian - The Vanishing Tribes
• The little Vlach Corner
• Wolf Warriors: the Dacians and the Vlachs
• The Vlach Connection and further reflection on Roman history
• Studies on the Vlachs by Asterios Koukoudis
• farsarotul.org: The Society Farsarotul
• The Little Vlach Corner
• Aromanian settlements on the beginning of the XX. century (map)
• Tis ta munte - Aromanian-farserot song from Dobruja
• Listen to radio in Aromanian at the Romanian government supported Radio Romania International - the Aromanian section