History of the Aromanians
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This article is about the history of the Aromanians. For the history of Northern Vlachs (Romanians), see History of Romania.
Origins
Aromanians were identified as Vlachs in Medieval times.
History
Byzantine period
In 980 emperor Basil II conferred the dominion over the Vlachs of Thessaly on one Nikulitsa.[4]
As
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".[6]
The chronicles of
Ottoman period
During the Ottoman period, Aromanian culture and economic power became more evident, as Vlachs concentrated in major urban centers. For example, the city of
People of Aromanian origin were to be found 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, who, as mentioned, belonged to the Greek Orthodox Millet, 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
Several 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).
A large part of the Aromanians were living in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Initially they were Christians but around year 1000 majority of them passed to Bogomil/Patarene secte of Christians. As members of this church they were Serbianized and became bilingually. As a result of the Christian church oppression part of them returned to Orthodoxy. The Aromanians living in Bosnia kept Patarene faith until Turkish occupation, when they passed to Islam due to economical and religious motifs. Patarene Aromanians left a lot of artifacts in all Bosnia especially in their necropolises, consisting in tombstones with petroglyphs.[15]
Awakening of the Aromanian identity, and Romanian sponsorship
Their arrival there coincided with the spreading in Europe of the ideals of the French Revolution: nationhood, equality, mother tongue and human rights. In Habsburg-occupied Transylvania, they would 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 Aromanian emigrant was Mihail G. Boiagi. In 1813, he would publish in Vienna the book Γραμματική Ρωμαϊκή ήτοι Μακεδονοβλαχική/Romanische oder Macedonowlachische Sprachlehre ("Romance or Macedono-Vlach Grammar"). In the foreword to his work, Boiagi wrote: "Even if the Vlachs would claim, say, Hottentot 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 Dimitrie Cozacovici would publish in 1865 in Bucharest the "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" ("Romanian Grammar to serve the Romanians South of the Danube worked by D. Athanasescu and printed from the donations of D.D. Cozacovici, Romanian of Metsovo, in order to inaugurate the first Romanian school of Macedonia").
A century later, almost 100 Romanian schools were opened in the Ottoman territories of Macedonia and Albania, starting as early as 1860. It is noted that this initiative was proposed by the Aromanian Diaspora living in Bucharest. The first nucleus of the Vlach schooling in Macedonia and Pindus was to be established in 1860 and its initiators were a group of Aromanians then living in
One of the greatest figures during the Aromanian awakening was
Romania, with the support of Austro-Hungary, succeeded in the acceptance of the Aromanians ("Vlachs") as a separate millet (ethno-religious community) with the decree (
Romania continued to subsidize schools until 1948, when the communist regime ended all links. George Padioti, an Aromanian author (born and living all his life in Greece) describes one of the last liturgy services in Vlach:
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]
According to Sevold Braga in his treatise Die Aromunische Minderheit in Griechenland (Albumul Macedo-Roman II, Freiburg 1964), the Romanian help suddenly stopped with the coming of Communism. Braga's explanation was that in fact Romania had shown its true face, having used the Aromanians for its own purposes during the Ottoman rule, but afterwards throwing them away and disowning them.[citation needed]
Greek historians, when mentioning the Vlachs that attended the Romanian-sponsored churches and schools of Macedonia, Epirus and parts of Albania, describe them as being victims of Romanian propaganda, suggesting that they sent their children to schools where they were taught that they are Romanians.[citation needed]
The Vlachs, recognized as a separate nation by the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, were for the first time incorporated in Greece only in 1881, when Thessaly and a part of Epirus were offered to Greece by the Great Powers. 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 in 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 studies regarding the Aromanians were published 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 to partial 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]
Interbellum and World War II
The Inter-war period is of great interest regarding 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
The last important episode concerns the
Post-war situation in Greece
Aromanians today come after more than 50 years after the closure of the last school and church in the Vlach language. The old term "Vlachos" is still used as a "pejorative" by Greeks.
After pressure from the
While many Aromanians identify themselves as both Vlachs and Greeks, a small segment of the native Vlach inhabitants of Greece identify themselves as fully separate from the Greeks. This appears to be the case of some of the more remote villages of Pindus, where, sheltered somehow from contact with the dominant Greek culture, the older generation of the Vlachs converses in a separate language and customs. German academic Thede Kahl, whose broader perspective on the Aromanian community in Greece has been questioned by some nationalists, argues 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-Vlach Aromanians in Greece, especially in villages in which strong Vlach 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.[31]
Debate and discussion continues, with differing perspectives. Vlachs in Greece insist they are happy in practicing their dual identity. Some Vlachs outside Greece suggest difficulties may still be illustrated by the Sotiris Bletsas case.[26] Bletsas was arrested in Greece while distributing copies of European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages material covering linguistic minorities in Greece at an Aromanian festival in 1995.[32] He was put on trial on 2 February 2001 and was first convicted,[33] but was subsequently cleared on 18 October 2001.[34]
See also
References
- ^ Ioan-Aurel Pop. "On the Significance of Certain Names: Romanian/Wallachian and Romania/Wallachia" (PDF). Retrieved 18 June 2018.
- ^ "Valah". Dicționare ale limbii române. dexonline.ro. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
- ISBN 1-889441-06-6.
- ISBN 973-653-191-0.
- ^ D. Seward and S. Mountgarret – Byzantium: A Journey and a Guide; Harrap, London 1985 (p.183 etc.): Metsovo is the Greek capital of this shepherd race. After the Empire's temporary collapse in 1204 the Vlachs even set up their own kingdom of Great Wallachia
- ^ Libro de Viages de Benjamin de Tudela.
- ^ John V. A. Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century, University of Michigan Press, 1994 p. 31.
- ^ Octavian Ciobanu: The Role of the Vlachs in the Bogomils’ Expansion in the Balkans page 15
- ^ Libro de Viages de Benjamin de Tudela, Volume VIII, p. 63.
- ^ Brendan Osswald. The Ethnic Composition of Medieval Epirus. S.G.Ellis; L.Klusakova. Imagining frontiers, contesting identities, Pisa University Press, 2007, p.129 978-88-8492-466-7.
- ^ N. Malcolm: "Bosnia: A Short History, p. 66."
- ^ Sir Charles Eliot: “Turkey in Europe”, London 1908, re-printed: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd - London 1965, pp.370-379;
- ^ Neofytos Doukas, "Logos peri katastaseos skholeion"
- ^ Thede Kahl, Ethnizität und räumliche Verteilung der Aromunen in Südeuropa. Münster, 1999
- ^ Isidor Ieşan, Secta patarenă în Balcani şi în Dacia Traiană. Institutul de arte grafice C. Sfetea, București, 1912
- ^ Constantin Papanace: "A Memorandum to the United Nations in favour of the Macedo-Romanians", 1955
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition; 1911
- ^ The ethnicity of Aromanians after 1990: the Identity of a Minority that Behaves like a Majority, Thede Kahl, Ethnologia Balkanica, Vol. 6 (2002), σελ. 148
- ISBN 9780262014205.
- ^ "Nikola Minov: Why don't all Aromanians celebrate May 23 as their national day?". Trâ Armânami Association of French Aromanians. 24 May 2020. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
- ^ George Ap. Padioti – Cantitii Farserotesti – Tragoudia Farsarioton Arvanitovlahon – Published by Etaireia Aromanikou (Vlahikou) Politismou, Athens: January 1991, p. 71
- ^ Sir Charles Eliot - "Turkey in Europe" - London 1908, re-printed 1965 (pp. 370-382; 430 - 441): "..After the Greco-Turkish war the Vlachs of Thessaly petitioned the Powers that they might be placed under Ottoman and not Greek Government." [...]
- ^ Osbert Lancaster - Classical Landscape with Figures - London, 1975, John Murray
- ^ W.A. Wigram D.D. - Hellenic Travel, Faber and Faber Ltd., London 1947 (pp.109-11)
- ^ John Nandris – "The Aromani" (In "World Archaeology" 17/1985, p. 261)
- ^ a b "Report: The Vlachs". Greek Monitor of Human & Minority Rights. 1 (3). 1995. Archived from the original on 2015-01-16. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
- ^ Baicu, Cornel (29 August 2003). ""Rumänien ist für uns eine zweite Heimat"" (in German). Deutsche Welle.
- ^ "Aromanians: Report – Document 7728". Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. 17 January 1997. Archived from the original on 6 August 2011.
- ^ "Recommendation 1333 (1997) on the Aromanian culture and language". Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. 24 June 1997. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011.
- ^ "Letter to Chapters No. 167" (in Greek). Panhellenic Federation of Cultural Associations of Vlachs. 18 March 2004. Archived from the original on 12 August 2014.
- ^ Dr. Thede Kahl - Ethnologica Balkanica ("The Ethnicity of Aromanians after 1990: the Identity of a Minority that Behaves like a Majority" 6/2002, p.154)
- ^ "It's not Greek enough to them". Aromanian Vlachs: The Vanishing Tribes. 13 July 2001. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012.
- ^ "Parliamentary Question – Subject: 15-month prison sentence handed down to Mr Sotiris Bletsas for distributing information material financed by the Commission". European Parliament. 3 May 2001. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- ISBN 973-733-041-2, p. 133-134
- Lozovan, Eugen. Romani şi barbari pe cursul mijlociu al Dunării.
- Wollf, R. – The 'Second Bulgarian Empire.' Its Origin and History to 1204 – Appendix A, on the Vlachs