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The Aromanians, a stateless Romance-speaking ethnic group in the Balkans, have often organized themselves into cultural organizations to preserve their culture and identity. Today, there is a large number of Aromanian cultural organizations in the countries in which they live.
The first Aromanian cultural organizations in Albania appeared in 1991, in Korçë and Selenicë. [1] German researcher Thede Kahl reported in 2002 that almost every town in central and southern Albania had an Aromanian association, and that in many cases, two different associations, not always officially registered, had emerged in the same place due to differing views. [2]
Because the number of Aromanians in Bulgaria is low, there are few Aromanian ethnic organizations in the country, with the first having been established in Sofia. There also are such organizations in Dupnitsa, Peshtera and Velingrad. According to Kahl, most settlements in Bulgaria with Aromanian inhabitants have Aromanian folklore groups. [4]
As of 2002, there were over 200 Aromanian organizations in Greece, many not officially registered. None of them had a name in Aromanian at the time, and most did not have the word "Vlach", the common name used to refer to the Aromanians in the country, in their names. [5]
The first Aromanian associations in what is now North Macedonia were founded in Bitola and Skopje in the 1970s, when North Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia. However, more notorious activities from these associations started only in the early 1990s, when North Macedonia became independent and efforts for the ethnic revitalization of the Aromanians intensified. [7]
The history of Aromanian organizations in Romania is relatively long, with many of the first ones having been founded to represent Romania's interests in the Aromanian question. Many new Aromanian associations appeared in the country in the 1990s with the aim of preserving Aromanian folklore, identity, language and traditions. Furthermore, there are Aromanian folklore groups in almost every village in Romania with an Aromanian population. [10]
Since the 18th century, Aromanians outside their homeland in the Balkans have played a key role in the struggle for the preservation of Aromanian culture, identity and language. [13]
Czech anthropologist Markéta Zandlová defined the Trâ Armânami Association of French Aromanians, the Society Farsharotu and the Union for Aromanian Language and Culture as the only Aromanian cultural organizations in the diaspora that have gone beyond the local level in their activities. [14]
The Aromanians are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and central Greece and North Macedonia, and can currently be found in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, south-western and eastern North Macedonia, northern and central Greece, southern Serbia and south-eastern Romania. An Aromanian diaspora living outside these places also exists. The Aromanians are known by several other names, such as "Vlachs" or "Macedo-Romanians".
This article is about the history of the Aromanians. For the history of Northern Vlachs (Romanians), see History of Romania.
The Kruševo Republic was a short-lived political entity proclaimed in 1903 by rebels from the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) in Kruševo during the anti-Ottoman Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising.
The Macedonian Struggle was a series of social, political, cultural and military conflicts that were mainly fought between Greek and Bulgarian subjects who lived in Ottoman Macedonia between 1893 and 1912. The conflict was part of a wider guerilla war in which revolutionary organizations of Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbs all fought over Macedonia. Gradually the Greek and Bulgarian bands gained the upper hand. Though the conflict largely ceased by the Young Turk Revolution, it continued as a low intensity insurgency until the Balkan Wars.
Pitu Guli was an Aromanian revolutionary in Ottoman Macedonia, a local leader of what is commonly referred to as the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).
Kruševo is a town in North Macedonia. In Macedonian the name means the 'place of pear trees'. It is the highest town in North Macedonia and one of the highest in the Balkans, situated at an altitude of over 1350 m above sea level. The town of Kruševo is the seat of Kruševo Municipality. It is located in the western part of the country, overlooking the region of Pelagonia, 33 and 53 km from the nearby cities of Prilep and Bitola, respectively.
Minorities in Greece are small in size compared to Balkan regional standards, and the country is largely ethnically homogeneous. This is mainly due to the population exchanges between Greece and neighboring Turkey and Bulgaria, which removed most Muslims and those Christian Slavs who did not identify as Greeks from Greek territory. The treaty also provided for the resettlement of ethnic Greeks from those countries, later to be followed by refugees. There is no official information for the size of the ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities because asking the population questions pertaining to the topic have been abolished since 1951.
The Aromanians in North Macedonia, also known as the Vlachs, are an officially recognised minority group of North Macedonia numbering some 9,695 people according to the 2002 census. They are concentrated in Kruševo, Štip, Bitola and Skopje.
The Aromanian language, also known as Vlach or Macedo-Romanian, is an Eastern Romance language, similar to Megleno-Romanian, Istro-Romanian and Romanian, spoken in Southeastern Europe. Its speakers are called Aromanians or Vlachs.
Malovište is an Aromanian village in the municipality of Bitola, North Macedonia. It used to be part of the former municipality of Capari.
The Aromanians in Albania are an officially recognised ethnic minority in Albania.
The Aromanians in Greece are an Aromanian ethno-linguistic group native in Epirus, Thessaly and Western and Central Macedonia, in Greece.
The Aromanian question, also sometimes known as the "Vlach question", refers to the historical and current division of the ethnic identity of the Aromanians, mostly with ones being pro-Greek, pro-Romanian or self-identified purely or primarily as Aromanian.
The Aromanian National Day is the national day of the Aromanians, an ethnic group of the Balkans scattered in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. It is normally celebrated by Aromanians from various countries in which they are native and also by the Aromanian diaspora, but many Aromanians of Greece do not observe it.
The Panhellenic Federation of Cultural Associations of Vlachs is an organization of Aromanians ("Vlachs") in Greece. The Aromanians are an ethnic group scattered over the Balkans living in many countries such as Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia, as well as Greece, which has the largest concentration of them. The Aromanians of Greece are characterized by their disinterest in initiatives that aim to maintain the Aromanian culture and language outside the familiar environment and many have repeatedly expressed opposition to foreign organizations that have tried to help them achieve this.
The Ullah millet was a separate millet within the Ottoman Empire. It was established by the Ottoman authorities for the Aromanians in 1905, during the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire. Although the Megleno-Romanians are also sometimes called Vlachs, the Ullah millet was not intended for them.
The Society Farsharotu, officially the Aromanian Cultural Society Farsharotu, is an organization of Aromanians in the United States, with its headquarters at Trumbull, Connecticut. The Aromanians are a Balkan ethnic group scattered over many countries in the region. These are Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. The organization's former full name used to be "Romanian Cultural and Benevolent Society Farsarotul".
The Aromanian diaspora is any ethnically Aromanian population living outside its traditional homeland in the Balkans. The Aromanians are a small Balkan ethnic group living scattered throughout Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. Historically, they also used to live in other countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, although they have ever since been assimilated.
The Union for Aromanian Language and Culture is an organization of Aromanians in Germany headquartered at Freiburg im Breisgau. It was founded in 1985 by the Aromanian professor Vasile Barba, who had migrated to West Germany from Romania two years earlier together with his wife Katharina Barba, an ethnic German of Romania.
Recommendation 1333 (1997) on the Aromanian culture and language, often simply referred to as Recommendation 1333 (1997), is a recommendation on Aromanian minority rights by the Council of Europe. It was voted unanimously by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 24 June 1997 and formally adopted by the Council of Europe on 15 June 1999. Recommendation 1333 (1997) was issued following the efforts of the Union for Aromanian Language and Culture (ULCA) and its founder and president at the time Vasile Barba, and aimed to improve the ethnic rights of the Aromanians on the countries in which they live. Though considered a great success for the Aromanians, it failed to be implemented appropriately in most of the countries it was supposed to.