THE LEGAL – POLITICAL SITUATION OF MACEDO-ROMANIANS

(VLACHS) FROM ALBANIA

Lecturer Dr. Ioan Stan∗

Abstract
This article contains an analysis of the status of the minority of Vlachs from Albania, as
well as the rights and liberties resulted from this quality. If during the totalitarian regime these
rights were totally ignored, after the instauration of democracy, in Albania, just as in all south-
eastern European countries, the conditions necessary for the continuation of acknowledgment
intercessions regarding the recognition of Macedo-Romanians as a distinctive ethnic minority
were created. It appears that significant progress was made in this country to this end and that
among these minorities there are still issues regarding their own identity.

Key words: national minority, identity, democracy, recognition, human rights.

Introduction
The current paper presents the juridical-political situation of Macedo-Romanians
(Vlachs) from Albania after the democratic regime came out in this country.

After the Second World War, most Balkan states (Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania,
Romania and Greece) were subjected to significant political changes as totalitarian regimes came
to power and gave a great stroke to the affirmation of Macedo-Romanians (Vlachs) as a
distinctive national minority. Ever since 1940, Romanian schools from these countries, funded
by the Romanian state, were closed, their buildings sold and the teachers were fired. For that
matter, the policy of the Romanian state (after the instauration of the popular democratic regime)
was that of total abandonment of Macedo-Romanians. Their coryphaei, left without any support,
were condemned to many years of silence in their respective countries, and the fight for the
affirmation of a distinctive ethnic group was only maintained through the journalistic activities
of some Macedo-Romanian intellectuals settled in the Occident.
After almost half a century, due to the restoration of democratic regimes in the above
mentioned Balkan states, the conditions necessary for the continuation of acknowledgment
intercessions regarding the recognition of Macedo-Romanians as a distinctive ethnic minority
were created again, including in Albania.
Macedo-Romanians from Albania are a part of the southern branch of eastern Romance,
different from the northern-Danube (Dacian) branch due to the interposition of migrating Slavic
populations during the second half of the first millennium, as the location in two distinctive areas
indicates as well:
- The first group, of the Farseroti lineage (a tribe of shepherds) is established on the plain
of Thessaly and the mountain area of the central Albanian Mountains, around the city of
Korce, up until Macedonia and Greece. Here, not very far from Korce, stand the

∗
Ph.D., Lecturer of International Law „Agora” University, Oradea
 Moscopole Mountains, considered “the center of culture and civilization of Macedo-
Romanians in the Balkans”.
- The second group is localized on the tide land of central and southern Albania; compact
communities living autonomously in localities like: Lusnea, Vlora, Selenita, and Saranda.
A recent statistic recorded around 10.00 speakers of the Macedo-Romanian dialect, other
estimates state 50.000 to 200.000 Macedo-Romanians or to approximately 15% of the
inhabitants of the country (around 3.150.000 inhabitants). According to recent official estimates,
the number of Macedo-Romanians would exceed 100.000, all of Orthodox rite, in a mostly
Muslim country and until 1990, the only one in Europe stated as being atheist. Also, during the
totalitarian period, almost all Orthodox churches, most of them pertaining to Macedo-
Romanians, were demolished.
Due to their adherence to the Orthodox confession, Albanese authorities are reserved
when it comes to consecrating Macedo-Romanians as a distinctive ethnic group, especially
because in their tense relationship with Greece, the later invokes territorial claims based on the
existence of more than 700.00 Greeks. This figure includes Orthodox rite Macedo-Romanians,
believed to be Vlach speaking Greeks, inhabiting mostly the southern part of the country in the
Saranda area (northern part of the Epirus plains), a territory claimed by Greece.
A general phenomenon is that Macedo-Romanians no longer speak this dialect and their
descendants no longer know it. Still, a part of the young population, especially those that studied
in Romania, participated in the rediscovery of their affiliation to this ethnic group and of the
desire to benefit from the rights arising from this quality. (The right to use their own language in
schools, churches, mass-media, etc…).
By dint of the constitutional right consecrating the freedom of association, in April of
1991 took place the first Congress for the institution of the Cultural Association of Macedo-
Romanians in Albania.
After a period of organization and affiliation to the Macedo-Romanian ethnicity related
issues, at the beginning of 1998, the Cultural Association of Macedo-Romanians from Albania
submitted a petition to the authorities (Parliament, President of the Republic, Prime-Minister)
requesting the insurance of some minimal rights that would help conserve and restore the
vernacular language, culture, customs and traditions. The petition objectively requested the
following>
1. All localities harboring compact Macedo-Romanian population will foresee in their
education plans the teaching of this language.
2. Radio and television posts, as well as other types of media would be able to broadcast in
Macedo-Romanian.
3. The ability to establish private studios or local editorial offices that would broadcast and
print in Macedo-Romanian.
4. The Cultural Association of Macedo-Romanians from Albania would be supported
financially by the state and be granted buildings for offices.
5. A cultural department would be set-up within the National Cultural Institute.
6. Conditions allowing the unconfined movement of people and goods between Balkan
states where Macedo-Romanians live would be created in order to facilitate liaisons
between them.
In order to support this petition, the applicants referred to Recommendation 1333/1997 of
the European Council, an international document recommending Balkan states to facilitate the
acknowledgement and use of the Macedo-Romanian language in schools, churches, radio and
television.
The outcome of these demarches, the gradual introduction in some schools of the study of
the Macedo-Romanian dialect was attempted, but their accreditation as a distinctive national
minority that would help them benefit from all the rights and liberties arising from this status was
not approved by Albanian authorities due to the political consideration already mentioned.
In the period between November 17 and November 19 of 2009 the Proceedings of the
International Congress of Macedo-Romanians took place in Tirana. Participants to this event,
representatives of some associations from Romania, Albania, Macedonia and Serbia adopted a
resolution stating their concern about the lack of interest of states where Macedo-Romanians live
regarding the assurance of minimal right necessary to their cultural and ethnic affirmation. Also,
the participants fought against the proliferation at a world scale of some “neo-Macedo-
Romanian” entities like: Fara Armaneasca (Romania), The Vlach Union (Albania), the
Association of Vlachs from Albania, etc… who they say, have false legitimacy interests. The
leaders of these organizations were accused of artificially promoting the right of Macedo-
Romanians, who they describe as being different from Romanians, because in fact their interest
is to obtain personal material benefits.
On august 15th 2010, in Albania, at Moscopole took place the “Great Assembly of
Macedo-Romanians” celebrating the Virgin Mary, a Christian, symbolic day. This manifestation
was attended by approximately 200 people from most Balkan states. A resolution on behalf of
the “Council of Macedo-Romanians” was adopted and requesting authorities from Albania,
Romania, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria to ensure the protection and affirmation of
“the system of values and ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious identity of Macedo-
Romanians”. At the same time, the resolution legitimized “the rebirth of Macedo-Romanians as a
regional population autochthonous to the Balkans”.
One cannot neglect the fact that two orientations regarding ethnic identity and origin have
arisen within the Macedo-Romanian community. The first one consecrates the affiliation to the
Romanian ethnicity, as their language is in fact a dialect of the Romanian language spoken north
of the Danube. The second radical group, born quite recently advocates that Macedo-Romanians
are a ethnicity different from the Romanian one, with a vernacular language, “the Aromanian
language”.
Aspects regarding the dissensions between the two orientations, damaging to Macedo-
Romanians will be approached in a future article.
With regard to the city of Moscopole, situated in the mountains of Albania, the city is
considered a spiritual capital of Macedo-Romanians because in the second half of the 13th
century, it was a flourishing settlement with more than 600.000 inhabitants mostly Macedo-
Romanians with a prosperous life. The city was devastated two times, in 1767 and 1787 by
Turkish-Albanian troops and the population was slaughtered in part, due to the implication of the
Greek emancipation movement. In 1788 more than 150 people escaped the wrath led by Pope
Iani and Gh. Simon Sina and took refuge in Austria managing to save part of their fortunes by
carrying their money in bags or in pots filled with coins and covered with bee honey to feed their
children, they said – and in clothes lined with coins, bills and jewels. They continued their
commercial and banking activities in this new country, they bought land and transformed it in
modern farms and capitalized on their products thus increasing their capital. Some descendants
of Macedo-Romanians fro Moscopole turned out to be great people, with a determining role in
the affirmation of Macedo-Romanians in Transylvania, Banat, and other areas that used to form
the Austrian Empire (Andrei Saguna, Emanoil Gojdu, and Count Gh. Sina, the Mocionesti
family, the Drimba, Boiagi families, etc…). It is a known fact that Gh. Sina, together with count
Stefan Szechenyi financed the construction of the famous “Chain Bridge” in Budapest and
during the revolution of 1848 supported the autonomy of the Empire’s provinces and confessed
their Macedo-Romanian origin and attitude favorable to the cause of Romanians who opposed
the policy of forced union of Transylvania with Hungary.

Conclusions
After the Second World War, most Balkan states (Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania,
Romania and Greece) were subjected to significant political changes as totalitarian regimes came
to power and gave a great stroke to the affirmation of Macedo-Romanians (Vlachs) as a
distinctive national minority. At the beginning of the '90s of the last century, due to the
restoration of democratic regimes in the Balkan states, the conditions necessary for the
recognition of Macedo-Romanians as a distinctive ethnic minority were created.

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