ARMANJI IN BALKANIAN HISTORY

Armanji Songs

Armanji in Acarnania

Armani from Acarnanie (western Hellas) known as Remeni


Armanji or Aromanians or Aromuns known also as subgroup of Vlachs are people living throughout the southern Balkan (mainly in Hellas, Albania, FYROM and Bulgaria and as an emigrant community (18th century) in Romania, Monte Negro and Serbia. The largest group is considered to live in Hellas (Weigand, Koukoudis). The Aromanian call themselves Armãn or Rrimen that is derived from Romanus and denotes a citizen of the Roman or Byzantine empire, which was called "Romania". Adding "a" in front of certain words that begin with a consonant is a feature of the Arman's language.

" ..from 1912-13 and on, the majority of the Vlachs in the balkans (2/3 according to demographic estimates by G. Weigand) obtained the identity of Greek Citizens, apart from the identity they already had as an integral part of ROMIOSINI. In 1912-13, out of more or less 160.000 Vlachs living in the balkans at the end of the 19th century, acoordingto G. Weigand estimations, 102.330 were found within Greece, 30830 in present-dayFYROM, 13465 in Albania and approximately 10000 in Bulgaria, Servia, Kosovo and Bosnia... In Greece, in contrary to the picture of the vlach settlements in the plains and in urban, economic and administrative centres coexists with the numerous medieval and highland vlach metropolitan communities (with the exception of Moschopolis and few others ).." Asterios Koukoudis, 1999.

Vlachs is a blanket term covering several modern latin people descending from the Latinised population incentral, eastern and southeastern Europe. Groups that have historically been called Vlachs include: Daco-Romanians (modern-day Romanians), Armanji, Moglenites and Istro-Romanians. The word Vlach is ultimately of Germanic origin, from the word Walha a name used by ancient Germanic peoples to refer to Romance speaking neighbours. As such, it shares its history with several ethnic names all across Europe , including the Welsh and Walloons. Slavs used the name Vlachs when referring to Latin people in general. Through history, the term "Vlach" was often used for groups which were not ethnically Vlachs, but for any shepherding (Anna Komnini, 12th century), for Serbs, or for Christians by Muslims. In the Croatian region of Dalmatia, Vlaj/Vlah are the terms used by the inhabitants of coastal towns for the people who live inland: barbarians who came from the mountain. In Hellas from according Anna Komnini (12th century) Vlachs were people who was moving serpents. In modern-day Hellas the word Βλάχος (Vláhos) is often used as a slur against any supposedly uncouth or uncultured person.

It is considered that the Armani people are the descendants of Latinized native people from Roman legionaries who had settled in the Balkans. The Roman colonization of Epirus and Macedonia began earlier and lasted longer than that of Dacia (Romania) keeping in the aromanian language several archaic Latin and ancient Greek words (see Aromanian Language) strongly supporting that the Aromanians are descended from aHellas or later, during the first centuries of the Byzantine Empire when Latin continued to be the official language. The construction of the Via Egnatia and the founding of Roman colonies influenced Greek population in South Hellas more than in North regions. The Latinised peoples that originated from this region of the Roman Empire eventually retired into the security of the mountainous terrain after Avar, Slav and Bulgarian attacks and became specialized in nomadic pastoralism.

via Egnantia (146-120 πΧ )

Armanji tend to live in mountainous regions especially in the Pindus mountains. Because it runs along the border of Thessaly and Epirus, the Pindus range is often called the "spine of Hellas". The mountain range stretches from near the Hellenic-Albanian borders in Northern Epirus, entering the Epirus periphery and Macedonia region in northern Hellas.
Euroatlas-info

THE ARMANJI PEOPLE IN HELLAS ARE HISTORICALLY AND CULTURALLY AN INTEGRAL PART OF HELLENISM AND THEY NEVER ASKED OR DESIRED, TO BE RECOGNISED AS ETHNIC MINORITY BY THE HELLENIC STATE OR ANY OTHER AUTHORITY .