Minorities which became part of modern-day Hellenism

[Ellinas]

Recent Developments

The Koutsovlach issue has been long forgotten in Greece and is a topic mainly for a few old men. The partition of the Vlachs took place three generations ago, and only a few old people survive from the original Cadrilatér immigrants. Now that Greece faces a low birth rate and immigration of completely foreign people, the decision to encourage thousands of Greek citizens to move to Romania seems unfortunate. But it is hard to judge the politics of that time with today’s criteria. In the beginning of the 20th century, it was important to form a country without populations of hostile and irredentist beliefs. If the Vlachs who went to Cadrilatér had stayed in Greece, there might have been more pro-Italian ‘legionnaires’ during the German occupation.

The combination of Greek and Romanian politics proved disastrous for the Vlachs. Perhaps few other populations have been disrupted so much because of a language. Greek authorities up to the mid-20th century behaved in a narrow-minded and undiplomatic way toward the pro-Romanian Vlachs, while they took care of the Asia Minor refugees, even those who spoke only Turkish.154 The authorities rarely tried to win the Vlachs’ allegiance or offer constructive alternatives to the Romanian propaganda. With their behavior they scared some people into conformity but lost many others and were internationally accused of oppressing minorities.155 Many problems would have been avoided if the Patriarchate allowed mass in Vlach (not in Romanian) instead of pushing people into viewpoints that they often did not believe in. The narrow-mindedness and attentiveness to appearances have repeatedly caused the Greek people and the Orthodox Church to lose friends and adherents.156

Over the years, Greece has maintained its homogenizing policy, which is credited by some as helping avoid the Balkan conflicts that exploded since 1990. The country has to maintain a difficult balance between the rights of citizens to believe whatever they want and the need to avoid any possible rise of violent irredentism. In fact, its policies towards Vlachs as people have been kind. The Vlachs of Albania have been accepted as Greeks from northern Epirus and have received residency. Thus thousands of Arvanitovlachs immigrated, who did not know a word of Greek but who got jobs and have been supporting their families back home.

But the 1990s disputes with FYROM about the name of Macedonia have echoed the old Romanian teachings on origins of ancient Macedonians. Perhaps also the spectre of Pindus Vlachs fighting for independence or ‘legionnaire’ terrorism somehow remains, because the Greek government continues to be suspicious of those who espouse the old pro-Romanian or separatist beliefs. A citizen was convicted in 2001 because he circulated a pamphlet of the Council of Europe regarding minority languages.157 An old man’s citizenship was taken away without his knowledge because he published a magazine that promoted the old arguments.158 Hooligans burned books from FYROM during a book fair, which included Vlach books. (Surely no one knew enough to tell them apart.) Unfortunately, such actions bring back to life an issue forgotten long ago and create a cause for sarcastic articles abroad that mock the presumed democratic ideals of Greece. Even the website of the Turkish Ministry of External Affairs (
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) mentions that the Vlachs enjoyed greater freedoms under the Ottoman Empire.

Likewise, the government has remained very cool towards the descendants of the Cadrilatér emigrants. The Greek embassy in Bucharest that teaches Greek to interested people could approach the Vlach organizations and invite them to participate, but it has not. Normally, persons who can prove a Greek origin are entitled to Greek citizenship, but this group is not because of the old bilateral treaty. Citizenship applications by persons born in Romania are screened to find out whether their forefathers abandoned their citizenship under the treaty. (The old records are incomplete, and not all cases are found.) Nevertheless, time is healing this issue. In preparation to enter the European Union, Romania has rescinded its old position that Vlachs are diaspora Romanians and in need of special protection. After Romanians receive the right to move freely in the European Union, the descendants of the Cadrilatér Vlachs will be able to live in Greece if they so desire.

The Vlach language has attracted the interest of the Council of Europe, which tries to conserve minority languages. On June 24, 1997, the Council adopted decision 1333 (1997) that recommends measures for the maintenance and dissemination of the language, and its use in television, radio, and churches.159 During a subsequent visit to the Metsovo area, Mr. Stephanopoulos, President of the Hellenic Republic, encouraged the inhabitants to speak and teach their language.160 But the Council of Europe recommendations have yet to be implemented. Some people might indeed try through mass media to convince Vlachs that they are minorities, even when their grandparents thought otherwise. Nevertheless, a strong record of civil rights may do the most to convince people that it is worthwhile being Greek. History has shown that governmental and church rigidity may create bigger problems than any foreign meddling.

The European emphasis on minority languages has increased the interest in the Vlachs of Greece. A four-volume research by a teacher named Asterios Koukoudis received an Academy of Athens prize in 1998, and several other books have been published since 2000. But an effort to teach Aromanian at Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki stopped due to limited student interest and cancellation of funds by a Vlach organization. Thus, Aromanian is taught in Freiburg, Germany (and by people who believe that Vlachs are not Greek), but continues to be neglected in Greece. The challenge for all who love the old language and its songs is to preserve it and cultivate it while avoiding political pitfalls.

"It is unknown whether the Vlachs are a distinct ethnicity, but the mixed marriages have scattered their genes in the general population of Greece. The issue is no longer whether the Vlachs are Greek. It is we, the Greeks, at least the inhabitants of Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus, who have become a little Vlach. Maybe we should give more respect and attention to the forgotten heritage shared by some of our ancestors and relatives." Eleni Abatzi

Sources:
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Famous Vlachs

Politicians

Evanglos Averof
Ioannis Koletis
Spyridon Lambrou
Christos Folias

Ecumenical Patriarchs

Ioakeim II
Athenagoras

Benefactors

Georgios Averof
Georgios Sinas
Nikolaos Stournaras
Emmanouil Tositsas
Stergios Doumbas
Apostolos Arsakis
Evangelos Zappas
Constantinos Zappas

Artists

Stefanos Sarafis, poet
Apostolos Kaldaras, composer
Dimitris Mitropanos, singer
Nikos Papatakis, stage director

Scholars etc.

Rigas Velestinlis Ferraios
Nikolaos Darvaris

Popular Vlach surnames

Vlach- beginning (ex. Vlachakis, Vlachopanagiotis)
Mitro- beginning (ex. Mitrogiorgos, Mitrousis)
Dirkas
Zarkos
Zifkas
Piaras
Tsepas
Gounas
Verros
Bonas
Zianas
Misios
Misias
Sokos
Siokos
Siokas
Siokis
Mertzos
Tsioumas
Tselios

Links

Pan-Hellenic Federation of Vlach Cultural Unions:
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Information about Vlachs, their language and traditions:
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Research on the Vlachs:
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[Prokomenos]

Great thread Ellinas. Very good information...

[alexthegreek]

thx very interesting

[Napalm]

Very fascinating post.

[Ellinas]

The Sarakatsani


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The Sarakatsani are a group of transhumant shepherds, mainly located in the Pindos Mountains.

The Sarakatsani traditionally spent the summer months in the Rhodope Mountains, in what is today Bulgaria, and returned south to Greece for the winter. The migration would start on the eve of Saint George's Day in April and the return migration would start on Saint Demetrius' Day, October 26th. After 1947, certain groups of Sarakatsani were not allowed to leave Bulgaria and enter Greece. They were subsequently settled in Bulgaria and they became partly Bulgarized. In Bulgaria, these Sarakatsani are known as Karakachans while in Romania they are called Saracaciani.

The ethnic origins of the Sarakatsani are unclear. Whether the Sarakatsani are of Proto-hellenic, Dorian origin or just Hellenized Vlachs, today they are firmly anchored in modern Greek life. Much of their traditional garb, songs, traditions and folklore have become integral parts of the overall Greek heritage.

History

Many authors have speculated on the origins of the Sarakatsani.

In Monograph on Koutsovlachs (Μονογραφια περι Κουτσοβλαχων, 1865, reprinted in 1905), a Greek Epirot named Aravantinos discussed how the Arvanitovlachs were called Sarakatsani due to their Greek roots ("Τοιουτους Αρβανιτοβλαχους φερεωικους ποιμενοβιους ολιγιστους απαντωμεν εν Θεσσαλια και Μακεδονια, Σαρακατσανους καλουμενους καταχρηστικους διοτι οι Σαρακατσανοι ορμονται εξελληνων και αυτοχρημα Ελληνες εισι").

In Aravantinos' Chronography (Χρονογραφια), he elaborates more on the Sarakatsani and discusses about the "existence" of the Sarakatsani along with other actual existing groups like the Pestanianoi and the Vlachs. He also states that the Arvanitovlachs were called Garagounides or Korakounides thus increasing the supposed differences between Arvanitovlachs and Sarakatsani ("Σαρακατσιανοι η Σακαρετσανοι εχοντες την καταγωγη εκ Σαρακετσιου ... Οι Σαρακατσανοι, οι Πεστανιανοι, και οι Βλαχοι οι εκ του Συρρακου εκπατρισθεντες, οιτινες και ολιγοτερων των αλλων σκηνιτων βαρβαριζουσι. Διαφοροι δε των τριων εισιν οι Αρβανιτοβλαχοι λεγομενοι Γκαραγκουνιδες η Κορακουνιδες").

The Sarakatsani may have been bilingual in both Greek and Latin. Evidence of this can be found in texts written by authors such as Katakouzinos II, Procopius, and Kasomoulis. These authors state that before the advent of the Ottomans in southeastern Europe, Greek-speaking Greeks only lived in the coastal cities of Epirus and Aetoloakarnania, and that the remaining people who resided in the mountains were Arvanitovlachs. Other testimonies from Cousinery, Pouqeville, Heuzey, Tertsetis, Frantzis, and Deligiannis confirm that the population in Epirus, Aetoloakarnania and western Macedonia were bi-lingual.

The people known today as the Sarakatsani were referred to as Roumeliotes by authors such as Georges Kavadias even though the Sarakatsani did not use that name themselves. Based on an account by Fotakos, the people currently known today as the Sarakatsani referred to themselves as Moraites when they migrated to Thessaly after the Greek Revolution. A Czech author by the name of Jirecek found the Moraitian tribe as a Latin-speaking populace that eventually became Greek-speaking (Gesty Pobulgarsky, Praze 1888 p. 220 and Das Furstentum Bulgariens 1891 p. 119). So perhaps the Sarakatsani spoke a mixed Greek-Latin language and became Greek monolinguals after the Greek Revolution.

20th century accounts

Many 20th century scholars have studied the linguistic, cultural, and racial background of the Sarakatsani.

The Danish scholar Carsten Hoeg (1925-1926) stated that there are no traces of foreign elements in the Sarakatsani dialect. These foreign linguistic elements are neither found phonetically nor are they found in the overall grammatical structure of the dialect. Hoeg was criticised by Georges Kavadias for exaggerating the link between the 20th century Sarakatsani populace and the ancient Greeks.

In terms of racial origins, the English researcher, J. K. Campbell (1964), stated that the Sarakatsani are more or less an unchanged populace. He found that the Sarakatsani were a very endogamic populace and considers them to be an isolate group. E. Makris (1990) considers the Sarakatsani to be a pre-Neolithic people. Yet "old" as they were depicted, they are not mentioned under the name of Sarakatsani until the end of the 18th century. In this respect, they seem to be quite "new."

In 1987, the London based scholar John Nandris, who observed the Sarakatsani "on the ground" continuously since the 1950s, summarizes his account of this tribe by inserting them in a more complex context of nomadic people interacting with one another. Interestingly, he alludes to the Yoruk or "Yuruk" connection though he is keen not to jump to any definitive conclusion. Writes John Nandris: "A Turkic tribe of nomads, the Yuruks, moved about in Macedonia and Thrace following the Turkish occupation, and could be met in the Rhodope even up to the end of the 19th century"; while Weigand was of the opinion that Balije, who moved seasonally in Herzegovina in the region now used by Humljaci, were a Yuruk group. There are other groups such as the Meglen Vlachs or Mijaci from Rakika valley of the Black Drim, who sometimes appear to be Slavicized Vlachs; and there are the Sarakatsani who, while they have clearly spoken Greek for some time, have so much in common with the Vlach way of life that (adopting the terminology of some Greek ethnographers) they are perhaps best described as hellenophone Kutsovlachs. There were groups of them in Hoeg's time with no fixed villages, whether in summer or in winter. Hoeg also found the Sarakatsani in other parts of Greece, in the Pindus, Thessaly, Macedonia, Pelagonia and in Serbia and the Rhodope, and the present author met them in Thrace, on Vermion, and around Lake Copais in Boeotia. Hoeg attempted to find nomadism, for which there is no evidence, in Classical Greece as an equation for that of the Sarakatsani. Beuermann rejects Hoeg's rationalisations of these facts, which is relevant to the claim frequently put forward that the Sarakatsani are the 'purest of the Ancient Greek' population. There appears to be no mention of 'Sarakatsani' previous to the 18th century."

The travel writer Sarah Wheeler in her book An Island Apart traces scions of the Sarakatsani in Euboea. They can also be found in the island of Poros. She writes: "I was fascinated by this elusive, aloof transhumant tribe with beguilingly mysterious origin. They fanned out all over the Balkans and have most closely associated with the Pindus and the Rodopi mountains in the northern mainland: in the fifties there were about 80.000 of them. They spent half of the year in their mountain pastures and the other half in their lowlands. Their rootlesness was balanced by an elaborate ritualization of almost every aspect of their lives, from costume to the moral code. Evia was the only island used by the Sarakatsani except Poros which was the furthest south they ever got (and perhaps Aegina too). In Evia they were, until this century, only found in the chunk of the island from the Chalkis-Kimi axis northwards about as far an Ayianna, and the cluster of villages around Skiloyanni constituted the most heavily settled Sarakatsani region on the island. There were 50 Sarakatsani families living on Mount Kandili, working as resin-gatherers encased in layers of elaborate costume. Photographs taken only few decades ago of Sarakatsani women in traditional costume sitting outside their wigwam-shaped branch woven huts. Many of them had quite an un-Greek looks, and were fair; perhaps that explains the blond heads you see now. The Sarkatsanoi were known by various names by the indigenous population, usually based on where they were perceived to have come from, and in Evia they were generally called Roumi, Romi or Roumeliotes after the Roumeli region. People often spoke of them misleadingly as Vlachs. They are settled now, mainly as farmers, with their own permanent pasture land. Their story is one of total assimilation."

Summary of theories

The anthropologist Georges Kavadias summarizes some of the theories about the Sarakatsani in Pasteurs-Nomades Mediterraneens: Les Saracatsans de Grece as follows:

1) The Sarakatsani are the lineal descendants of the Dorian tribes who lived in what is today Greece over three thousand years ago. This theory is endorsed by Greek historians and by a couple of Western European scholars who happen to be enthusiastic philhellene scholars too.

2) They are a branch of the nomadic Farseroti Vlachs who became Hellenized in the second-half of the 18th century under the pressure of the proselyt monk Cosmas of Aetolia (who later became sanctified). There are countles Vlach words still in use in the vocabulary of the Sarakatsani. Moreover, the Sarakatsani have the same socio-political patterns of organizing themselves as the Vlachs. Each socio-political unit was called a celnicat, in which each unit was lead by a leader known as a celnic (in Vlach) or tselingas (in its Grecized form). The word celnic/tselingas is of Slavic origin meaning 'forehead' (metopo in Greek). This theory is endorsed by Romanian and Romanians of Vlach descent scholars such as Nicolaie Iorga, Tache Papahagi and Theodor Capidan, as well by the Austro-Hungarian scholar Lajos von Thalocy.(

3) They are a Christianized branch of the nomadic shepherd tribe of the Yoruk (or Yuruk) Turcomans (according to the great French sociologist Arnold van Gennep, a scholar to whom we owe the term rite of passage).

Further reading

Kavadias, G. 1965. Pasteurs-Nomades Mediterraneens: Les Saracatsans de Grece. Paris: Gauthier-Villars.

Patrick Leigh Fermor, Roumeli - Travels in Northern Greece - London 1966 (for more on Sarakatsanoi see the whole chapter I "The Black Departers").

John Nandris, The Aromani: Approaches to the Evidence. pp.38-39 (Hamburg, 1987)

A. Beuermann, Formen der Fernweiderwirtschaft (Transhumanz-Almwirtschaft-Nomadismus). Verhandlung des Deutsches Geographentages, Vol.32; 277-90, 1960.

Sarah Wheler, 'An Island Apart, Abacus Press, London, 1992.




Famous Sarakatsani

Military figures

Katsantonis (1775 - 1809) - famous klepht leader in the pre-revolutionary period
Lepeniotis - brother of the former, also a klepht.

Elected officials

Georgios Souflias - Member of Parliament (1974-1996, 2000-present), Minister in various cabinets since 1977 (currently Minister for the Environment and Public Works)
Georgios Sourlas - Member of Parliament (1981-2000, 2004-present), formerly Minister for Health, currently Vice-President of the Parliament.
Nikolaos Katsaros - Member of Parliament (1981-2004), formerly Vice-President of the Parliament (1989-2000), author of the book «Αρχαιοελληνικές ρίζες του Σαρακατσιάνικου λόγου» ("Ancient Greek roots of the speech of the Sarakatsani")
Ioannis Printzos - Prefect of Magnisia (elected: 2002-2006)
Loukas Katsaros - Prefect of Larisa (elected: 2002-present), formerly Prefect of Kozani (appointed).


Links

Aris Poulianos' anthropological research on the Sarakatsani:
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Sarakatsan Organization of Serres:
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Sarakantsan Organization of Drama:
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[Prokomenos]

I have read about these people from Poulopoulos and even posted an article from him on here regarding the Sarakatsani. I do wonder if they are actually Greek or just Hellenized.