Aromanian National Day

The Aromanian National Day (Aromanian: Dzua Natsionalã a Armãnjilor) is the national day of the Aromanians, an ethnic group of the Balkans scattered in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. It is normally celebrated by Aromanians from various countries in which they are native and also by the Aromanian diaspora, but many Aromanians of Greece do not acknowledge it.[1][2]

Aromanian National Day
Observed byAromanians, officially North Macedonia
TypeEthnic
SignificanceThe day of the announcement of the recognition of the Aromanians as a separate ethnic and linguistic group in the Ottoman Empire
Date23 May
Next time23 May 2021 (2021-05)
Frequencyannual

As Aromanian associations and organizations declared in 1991,[3][4] its day of observation is 23 May[5][6][7][8][9] as this was the day in which it was announced that the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II had recognized the "Ullah Millet" ("Vlach Millet") for the Aromanians a day earlier in 22 May 1905. This was done with the help of Romania and external powers, notably Austria-Hungary and the German Empire, and its recognition granted them the right to have their own church and to have more autonomy over education.[1][2][7] The holiday is sometimes celebrated on 22 May instead.[1][2] This date for the recognition of the Ullah Millet may have been chosen so it coincided with the anniversary of the Romanian Declaration of Independence.[7]

On the Aromanian National Day of 2002, the Romanian state secretary Doru Vasile Ionescu announced through a statement at the University of Bucharest that Romania would start supporting again the Aromanian communities of Albania, Bulgaria and North Macedonia. This message read by him was from the Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Năstase. However, when asked about why did the message not include the Aromanians of Greece, Ionescu did not answer the question. This is assumed to represent the desire of the Romanian authorities not to intervene again in the so-called "Aromanian Question",[6] which had provoked a hostile struggle for influence over the Aromanians by Romania and Greece between the end of the 19th and the start of the 20th centuries.[7]

According to the historian Nikola Minov, the recognition of the Ullah Millet was a diplomatic defeat for Greece, which is why pro-Greek Aromanians refuse to celebrate a day that symbolizes a defeat for "their motherland". Another reason may be the fact that the Ullah Millet was established by a Turkish Ottoman Sultan, causing his word to not be widely accepted or respected due to the bad relations between Greece and Turkey.[7]

In North Macedonia however, the holiday is known as the "National Day of the Vlachs" (Macedonian: Национален ден на Власите, romanized: Nacionalen den na Vlasite) and it has been congratulated by Macedonian authorities such as the Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski[8] or the Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski.[9] In fact, it is an official public holiday in Macedonia since 2007 and a non-working day for Macedonian citizens of Aromanian ethnicity according to a 2007 law issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of North Macedonia.[10][3][4]

See also

References
  1. Kahl, Thede (2002). "The ethnicity of Aromanians after 1990: the identity of a minority that behaves like a majority". Ethnologia Balkanica. 6: 145–169.
  2. Kahl, Thede (2003). "Aromanians in Greece: Minority or Vlach-speaking Greeks?" (PDF). Jahrbücher für Geschichte und Kultur Südosteuropas. 5: 205–219.
  3. Arsovski, Sasha (23 May 2020). "Национален ден на Власите". Media Information Agency (in Macedonian).
  4. "Национален ден на Власите". Televizija 24 (in Macedonian). 23 May 2020.
  5. Constantin, Marin (2014). "The ethno-cultural belongingness of Aromanians, Vlachs, Catholics, and Lipovans/Old Believers in Romania and Bulgaria (1990–2012)" (PDF). Revista Română de Sociologie. Bucharest. 25 (3–4): 255–285.
  6. Gica, Alexandru (2009). "The recent history of the Aromanians in Southeast Europe" (PDF). The Newsletter of the Society Farsarotul. 31: 1–22.
  7. "Nikola Minov: Why don't all Aromanians celebrate May 23 as their national day?". Trã Armãnami. 24 May 2020. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  8. "PM Gruevski congratulates National Day of the Vlachs". Government of the Republic of North Macedonia. 22 May 2013.
  9. Kolekjevski, Ivan (23 May 2020). "President Pendarovski congratulates National Day of Vlachs". Media Information Agency.
  10. "23 мај -Национален ден на Власите" (in Macedonian). Government of the Republic of North Macedonia. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
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