STOICA LASCU

Abstract

The Aromanians, representatives of Balkan Romanity (ar/u/mâni, rumăni/rămăni, as they call themselves, or vlahi, belivlasi, rëmëri, ĉobani, cuţovlahi, ţinţari, the way the Balkan peoples, in the middle of whom they live, name them) and the Megleno-Romanians (vlaşi, as they call themselves, or vlaşi and megleniţi, the way the neighboring populations name them) are the southern branch of Oriental Romanity.

This study presents historical testimonies from the Romanian Countries, confirming the belonging of the Balkan Vlachs to the Romanian people and to Romanianism; these testimonies were provided by medieval chroniclers (Miron Costin, High Steward Constantin Cantacuzino, Dimitrie Cantemir), continuing with the Illuminists (the representatives of the Transylvanian School) and the revolutionaries of 1848 (Nicolae Bălcescu, Ion Ghica, Ion Ionescu de la Brad, Dimitrie Bolintineanu), or the Romanian intellectuals of Aromanian origin, as was the martyr-professor Ştefan Mihăileanu (1884: “I am Romanian before I am Macedonian”).

Keywords: Vlachs, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Balkan Romanians, Ottoman Macedonia, Balkan Romanity, Balkan Romanianism.

FROM THE ROMANIZED POPULATION TO VLACHS/AROMANIANS/BALKAN ROMANIANS

Stoica Lascu, PhD University Professor, Ovidius University of Constanţa (Faculty of History and Political Sciences). Among other works, author of the volume Românii balcanici în Dobrogea. Două studii şi mărturii arhivistice inedite. Cu două scrisori către aromânii din judeţele Constanţa şi Tulcea [Balkan Romanians in Dobrudja. Two Studies and Unpublished Archival Testimonies. With Two Letters Addressed to the Aromanians from the Constanţa and Tulcea Counties] (București: 2016) and coordinator of the volume Românii balcanici (aromânii şi megleno-românii) în Arhivele Naţionale Britanice (1850–1950) [Balkan Romanians (Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians) in the British National Archives (1850–1950)] (București: 2016), in collaboration with Marian Zidaru and George Lascu