EMANUIL INEOAN
Hellenic Diplomats and the Aromanian Issue at the Beginning of the 20th Century
Abstract
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Romanian Kingdom was sustaining an interventionist policy in the Balkans, consolidated especially as a result of the enthronement of King Carol and justified by the powerful Aromanian communities, inhabiting mainly the region of the Pindus Mountains, on the actual territory of Greece, but also those of Macedonia and Albania, regions belonging to the Ottoman Empire and revendicated by the Greek Kingdom. The main aims for Bucharest’s implication were the cultural and spiritual protection and preservation of the Aromanian communities during a time in which these aspects were threatened by the Hellenizating assimilation current. The opening of the three Romanian consulates in Thessaloniki, Bitolia, and Ioannina, on territories inhabited by Aromanians, for organizing the school and church networks represented another proof for the interest of Romanian politics in this matter. Our study tries to catch the reactions and attitudes of some diplomats, cultural, and church personalities from the Hellenic world, who at the beginning of the 20th century have expressed their positions concerning the politics of the Romanian Kingdom in the Balkans with regard to the situation of Aromanian communities.
Keywords: Aromanians, diplomats, Romania, Greece, Hellenization, 1900.