Arvanites, the Dorians of New Hellenism

When King Otto of Greece came in Greece in 1830, he hardly heard anyone speak in Greek and so he asked: "Where are the Greeks in Athens?"

His court looked at each other and answered: "There are no Greeks, but do not be troubled because this Albanian population will always be faithful to your monarchy".

Zaharias Papantoniou, "King Otto"

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Popullata të krishtera që zbritën nga Epiri, arvanitët, filluan që nga shekulli i 12-të të vendosen vazhdimisht në zonat e Atiko-Biotisë, Argolidho-Korinthisë, Eubesë dhe ishujve të Argosaronikut.
Të organizuar në shoqëri konservative fshataro-çobane dhe në "fara" të mbyllura, duke folur gjuhën shqipe të mesjetës që i ndante nga popullatat e tjera të krishtera, jetuan nëpër shekuj '' të harruar nga të gjithë dhe nga Zoti '' .
Ndihmuan shumë në luftën për liri dhe luajtën rol të rëndësishëm në kryengritjen e 1821-it dhe në krijimin e shtetit grek, pa kërkuar asnjëherë dhe pa marrë shpërblim për sakrificat dhe përpjekjet e tyre.
........
Χριστιανικοί πληθυσμοί που κατέβηκαν από την ΄Ηπειρο, οι Αρβανίτες, άρχισαν από τον 12ο αιώνα να εγκαθίστανται σταδιακά στις περιοχές της Αττικο-Βοιωτίας, Αργολίδο-Κορινθίας, Εύβοιας και νησιών του Αργοσαρωνικού.
Οργανωμένοι σε συντηρητικές αγροτο-ποιμενικές κοινωνίες και κλειστές "φάρες", μιλώντας τη μεσαιωνική αλβανική γλώσσα που τους ξεχώριζε από τους υπόλοιπους χριστιανικούς πληθυσμούς, έζησαν για εκατονταετίες "ξεχασμένοι από όλους κι από τον Θεό".
Πρόσφεραν πολλά στον κοινό αγώνα για την ελευθερία κι έπαιξαν σημαντικότατο ρόλο τόσο στην επανάσταση του 1821, όσο και στη διαμόρφωση του ελληνικού κράτους, χωρίς ποτέ να ζητήσουν κι ούτε να πάρουν αντάλλαγμα για τις θυσίες και τους αγώνες τους .

Category:

Education

Tags:

• albanian
• arvanite
• greece
• markos
• botsaris
• kolokotronis
• Αρβανίτικα
• Επανάσταση
• 1821
• Αρβανίτες
• Αλβανοί
• Έλληνες

[Jeffanos]

Without rewards?? R u crazy?? 7 prime ministers and 1 president of the republic can hardly ignored my friend..Besides why do u care Arvanites completelly assimilated to modern Greek culture and the guy who deported the Chams in Paramithia was a Souliot Napoleon Zervas and his EDES partizans the biggest percent of them were Arvanites..Now cut the propaganda and get a life..Arvanites are true Greeks despite their origin but the stereotypes from your fascist goverment won't stop right??

[MusicOfEpirus]

You use he word "assimilated" as if it's not a hostile word at all.

Wy don't we say "forced" to abandon their language... for if they were speaking Arvanitika still, they wouldn't be the "Greece" that the church wanted them to be. The country would break down, because all of the world would find out you were NOT Greeks!

Also, keep in mind that you're one of many that doesn't like to be associated with the Albanians. But there are few powerful intellectuals that will make a difference eventually

[Jeffanos]

@MusicOfEpirus Assimilation is not hostile always learn the terms before u post them...The Greek culture was the dominant in the Greek peninsula it was natural for Arvanites to be billingual and they were.. My composition teacher was an Arvanite (even i have some Arvanite blood from my mother's side) and we know that our grandfathers forbd their cheldren to speak Arvanitika cause w=they didn't want to be called Albanians..Your propaganda is pathetic..And we see where those intelectuals are...

[MusicOfEpirus]

Come on Jeffanos. Please read what you're writing and learn more from you own culture.

They were bilingual? Do you think that justifies anything? Not to say that they were NOT bilingual! The Arvanite population, when they found out that the new state decided to not make Arvanitika an official language, they rose and went to the square in Athens and were screaming: "We want to speak to general Syntagma!!".

Not knowing that Syntagma was the sonstitution in their "second" Greek language.

[MusicOfEpirus]

I'm not going to elaborate more as it would be a waste of time, but know that there's no ignorants here.

As for your other arguments, I'll let the crowds judge them.

Also, this video was prepared by Arvanites.

The reason why I'm posting it is to take the heat off of them. Otherwise they'd be considered traitors.

Read the end. I don't know Greek and I have not added one comma from what I was given.

Of course I don't expect all Greeks to accept everything, and you fall in the "laggers". Normal.

[meganbeach236558]

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[RockOnHellas]

Look balkan borders are new, and in each area today many people are descendant of other ethnicities although they have different conscience. That means that groups that belong to country A or B may speak whatever language and feel whatever they want to be but that doesn't mean they racially are so. So you can go as far back as you like and apply the same criteria to every group present in the balkans. The thing though is that the albanian head is triangular and none of these heads are so.

[Gerechtable]

o c'mon these faces are not albanian man these men are greek ...fuck you SHQIPTARE

[Jeffanos]

@arcamDeitango Well what was the purpose of this conversation?? I mean if u don't say it then leave us alone and leave our folkore alone none is saying that Modern Greeks are pure race but there is no pure race in Human History not only in Ballkans....We have influnced by the Ancient Greeks Romans and Illyrians that what makes us Romious...U have your own legacy keep it that way...

[arcamDeitango]

@Jeffanos No one is saying that you are albanian. I am not saying that. You are greek? Good, go and fuck yourself then with the rest or your fellows!!!

[Jeffanos]

@arcamDeitango Nevertheless the 45% of Albanian population is Muslim..By different mentallity i didn't mean religion i meant the nationall consiousness and the influence that occured by the rest of the Greek populations...But it seems u r so ignorant about those facts that u will propably continue your poem about Albanian superiority etc...I don't care what u say the fact that we were part of Greek national fabrication for 700 years should ring a bell to u..

[arcamDeitango]

@Jeffanos In the north we do not have a good perception of albanian muslims and in many cases we consider them as traitors, cause they betrayed the faith of their fathers when they converted and became one with the invader even if they consider themselves albanians. What would we say about those who betrayed their blood and their ethnos, claiming to be something else? TRAITORS is the answer! I do not know your case, probably you are one of the descendent of Agamemnon!!!

[arcamDeitango]

@Jeffanos ...Because 5 of them converted to orthodoxy and became montenegrins, this happened when the turks came and also before. How they became montenegrins? They were payed with money or they were pushed to marry the new arrivals, the slavs. In Serbia today there are 12 villages, who are from my same tribe, the Shkreli; they all say that they are serbs and not albanians anymore. But their roots are albanian. Same happened to the arvanites.

[arcamDeitango]

@Jeffanos I'm not complaying of how the arvanites today feel themselves. The do not feel albanians, I can't deny it. This is a fact. They fought for Greece and they deserved to become greeks more than the greeks themselves. But their roots are totally different. I am from the northern mountains. We are still catholics over there. To be honest we are a little bit rude over there cause we preserved our traditions and rules. 600 years ago we were 12 tribes all catholics. Today we are 7 only...

[arcamDeitango]

@Jeffanos In 1955 the school in Andros had around 150 pupils; three years after there were only a dozen, cause many of them immigrated with their families to Australia, Europe and America. The elders cried that the island was going to dead, but when the albanians came in the '90, the people was very happy, at least the arvanites were happy. Cause they associated that immigration to that of their forefathers. Andros was rebuild for the second time from the albanians. And the school today is full.

[arcamDeitango]

@Jeffanos He also explained me that they were blamed for everything that happened to the greeks in that island! If a chicken was stolen or if something happened to the greeks, the fault was of arvanites, the bad people who caused trouble to the greeks. He remembers how his father always used to tell him that Andros was made from the albanians 400 years ago, and until the albanians will keep going to live to Andros, the islands has many chances to survive.