Aromanians in Albania


The Aromanians in Albania officially Minoritetu Rrãmãn/Armãn tu Arbinishii, Minoriteti Vllah në Shqipëri, also known as Aromanians, Vllehët, Çobenjtë, Llacifacët, Xacët, or Xinxarët, are an officially recognised ethnic group native in central and south Albania.

Ethnonyms

The Aromanians in Albania are officially called the Minoriteti Vllah. The local population often refers to them as Vllehë, Çobenjë, Arumunë, Llacifacë Xacë or Xinxarë.

History

The Aromanians were first recognized at the London Conference of 1912–13 as a minority group within Albania. They fought the Ottoman Empire alongside the Serbians and Greeks during the Balkan Wars.

Historical settlements

Moscopole
The city of Moscopole was once home to the largest Aromanian population in the world. It was the cultural and commercial center of the Aromanians with a population of over 60,000 people. The city was razed to the ground by Ali Pasha of Ioannina in 1788, causing an exodus of Aromanian people across the Balkans. Many of them ended up in what would become North Macedonia, Albania and Greece. The largest concentration of Aromanians was in the Pelister region of Macedonia, the city of Kruševo and around the Prespa Lakes. The Moscopolitans, or the Moscopoleanji in Aromanian, is one of the largest population of Aromanians today. They speak the Moscopolean dialect of Aromanian and are the descendants of the Moscopoleans in Krusevo are today a fully recognized minority group under the constitutional law of the Republic of Macedonia.
Grabova
Grabova was a medieval town created in the 10th century. Aromanians have left Grabova on several occasions, although the village has never been completely deserted. The first wave of depopulation took place in the 17th century, when Grabova shared the fate of Moscopole and during the inter-war period, starting with 1931, many of Grabovars emigrated to Elbasan and Lushnjë. In 1933, 15 families from the village emigrated to Romania; they initially settled in the Quadrilater and then, in 1940, in the village of Nisipari, Constanța County, from where they moved to the larger nearby towns Another important immigration began in 1950, when communist authorities used the craftsmen from Grabova to build the industrial units in Korçë, Pogradec, Gramsh, Elbasan, and Tirana. The people of Grabova speak the Grabovar dialect of Aromanian.

Culture

Music

Religion

Aromanians in Albania are predominantly Orthodox Christians like the rest of Aromanians in the world. In Korçë they have an Aromanian-language church named 'Alju Sutir', and is the only church in Albania that is preaching in Aromanian language. Before that, they had another church also in Korçë with the same name, build in 1925 and destroyed by an earthquake in 1931.

List of settlements

The Aromanian community in Albania is estimated about 200,000 people, including those who no longer speak the language. Tanner estimates that the community constitutes 2% of the population. In Albania, Aromanian communities inhabit Moscopole, their most famous settlement, the Kolonjë District, a quarter of Fier, while Aromanian was taught, as recorded by Tom Winnifrith, at primary schools in Andon Poçi near Gjirokastër, Shkallë near Sarandë, and Borovë near Korçë . A Romanian research team concluded in the 1960s that Albanian Aromanians migrated to Tirana, Stan Karbunarë, Skrapar, Pojan, Bilisht and Korçë, and that they inhabited Karaja, Lushnjë, Moscopole, Drenovë and Boboshticë.

Central Albania

The Myzeqe is an area in southwestern-central Albania which encompasses parts of the Fier, Tirana and Durrës counties. It has a large Aromanian population spread across many villages. The Aromanian inhabitants of Myzeqe are referred to as Muzachiars or Muzachirenji in Aromanian.
In Southern Albania.
A large portion of Aromanians can be found in the small part of Macedonia that lies in Albania.
First the Aromanians were recognized at the London Conference 1912-13 as a minority group until the communist era. From 1967 until 1992 they were known as Albanian people, and from 1992 until 2017 they were known as a cultural and linguistic minority.
Since 2017, the Aromanians are an officially recognized ethnic minority.

Education

In the state University of Tirana Aromanian language is present in the Faculty of Foreign Languages.

Media

Aromanian-language media in Albania are RTSH 2, Radio Televizioni Gjirokastra and TV Korça. RTSH 2 broadcasts from Monday to Friday news and programms in Aromanian Language, while the other two only once a week. Beside TV media are also the internet radio RTV Armakedon, newspaper Fratia, magazine Fãrshãrotu and Arumunët/Vllehtë

Notable people from Albania