Arvanites

Arvanites (Greek: Αρβανίτες, Arvanitika: Arbëreshë or Αρbε̰ρεσ̈ε̰) are a population group in Greece who traditionally speak Arvanitika, a subbranch of the Tosk dialect of the Albanian language. They settled in Greece during the late Middle Ages and were the dominant population element of some regions in the south of Greece until the 19th century.Arvanites in Greece originated from Albanian settlers who moved south at different times between the 11th and 16th century from areas in what is today southern Albania.The reasons for this migration are not entirely clear and may be manifold. In many instances the Arvanites were invited by the Byzantine and Latin rulers of the time. They were employed to re-settle areas that had been largely depopulated through wars, epidemics, and other reasons, and they were employed as soldiers. Some later movements are also believed to have been motivated to evade Islamization after the Ottoman conquest. The main waves of migration into southern Greece started around 1300, reached a peak some time during the 14th century, and ended around 1600. Arvanites first reached Thessaly, then Attica, and finally the Peloponnese.During the Greek War of Independence, many Arvanites played an important role fighting on the Greek side against the Ottomans, often as national Greek heroes. With the formation of modern nations and nation-states in the Balkans, Arvanites have come to be regarded as an integral part of the Greek nation. In 1899, leading representatives of the Arvanites in Greece, among them descendants of the independence heroes, published a manifesto calling their fellow Albanians outside Greece to join in the creation of a common Albanian-Greek state.In 1903, Arvanites like Vangelis Koropoulis from Mandra, Attica, participated in the Macedonian Struggle.During the 20th century, after the creation of the Albanian nation-state, Arvanites in Greece have come to dissociate themselves much more strongly from the Albanians, stressing instead their national self-identification as Greeks.At the same time, it has been suggested that many Arvanites in earlier decades maintained an assimilatory stance,leading to a progressive loss of their traditional language and a shifting of the younger generation towards Greek. At some times, particularly under the nationalist 4th of August Regime under Ioannis Metaxas of 1936–1941, Greek state institutions followed a policy of actively discouraging and repressing the use of Arvanitika.In the decades following World War II and the Greek Civil War, many Arvanites came under pressure to abandon Arvanitika in favour of monolingualism in the national language, and especially the archaizing Katharevousa which remained the official variant of Greek until 1976. This trend was prevalent mostly during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974.Regions with a strong traditional presence of Arvanites are found mainly in a compact area in southeastern Greece, namely across Attica (especially in Eastern Attica), southern Boeotia, the north-east of the Peloponnese, the south of the island of Euboea, the north of the island of Andros, and several islands of the Saronic Gulf including Salamis. In parts of this area they formed a solid majority until about 1900. Within Attica, parts of the capital Athens and its suburbs were Arvanitic until the late 19th century.Others "have estimated that, when the Ottomans conquered the whole Greek territory in the XV century, some 45% of it was populated by Albanians".There are also settlements in some other parts of the Peloponnese, and in Phthiotis (Livanates, Malesina, Martino villages). There are no reliable figures about the number of Arvanites in Greece today and their exact number is unknown (no official data exist for ethnicity in Greece).

Names
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The name Arvanites and its equivalents are today used both in Greek (Αρβανίτες, singular form Αρβανίτης, feminine Αρβανίτισσα) and in Arvanitika itself (Arbëreshë or Arbërorë). In Standard Albanian, both three names are used: Arvanitë, Arbëreshë or Arbërorë.The name Arvanites and its equivalents go back to an old ethnonym that used in Greek to refer to Albanians.It originally referred to the inhabitants of that region Arvanon (Άρβανον) or Arvana (Άρβανα), and then to all Albanian-speakers. In Albanian language the self-designation Arbëror, which is still in use by Arvanites and Arbëreshë of Italy, had been exchanged for the new name Shqiptarë since the 17th century, an innovation that was not shared by the Albanophone migrant communities in the south of Greece. In later Byzantine usage, the terms "Arbanitai" and "Albanoi", with a range of variants, were used interchangeably, while sometimes the same groups were also called by the classicising names Illyrians. In the 19th and early 20th century, Alvani (Albanians) was used predominantly in formal registers and Arvanites (Αρβανίτες) in the more popular speech in Greek, but both were used indiscriminately for both Muslim and Christian Albanophones inside and outside Greece. In the course of the 20th century, it became customary to use only Αλβανοί for the people of Albania, and only Αρβανίτες for the Greek-Arvanites, thus stressing the national separation between the two groups.Another subbranch of Albanians, native to Greece, is that of Cham Albanians. They speak another dialect of the Albanian language, but the Orthodox population is regarded as Arvanites, by Greeks, although they designate themselves as Shqiptar. Greeks distinguish the Christian Chams from the Muslim Chams, who were expelled to Albania at the end of World War II.There is some uncertainty to what extent the term Arvanites also includes the small remaining Christian Albanophone population groups in Epirus and West Macedonia. Unlike the southern Arvanites, these speakers are reported to use the name Shqiptarë both for themselves and for Albanian nationals, although this is reported not necessarily to imply Albanian national consciousness. The word Shqiptár is also used in a few villages of Thrace, where Arvanites migrated from the mountains of Pindus during the 19th century however they also use the name Arvanitis speaking in Greek, while the Euromosaic (1996) reports notes that the designation Chams is today rejected by the group.

Fara
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Fara (Greek: φάρα, from Albanian fara 'seed',clan or tribe' is a descent model, similar to Scottish clans and Malësia tribes in Northern Albania. Arvanites were organised in phares (φάρες) mostly during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. The apical ancestor was a warlord and the phara was named after him. In an Arvanitic village, each phara was responsible to keep genealogical records (see also registry offices), that are preserved until today as historical documents in local libraries. Usually, there were more than one phares in an Arvanitic village and sometimes they were organised in phratries that had conflicts of interest. Those phratries didn't last long, because each leader of a phara desired to be the leader of the phratry and would not be led by another.



Notable Arvanites

Greek War of Independence
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Andreas Miaoulis, admiral and later politician
Dimitrios Koliopoulos Plapoutas, Arcadian kapetanios, close friend
of Theodoros Kolokotronis
Laskarina Bouboulina, the only female member of Filiki Etaireia
Georgios Kountouriotis, leader of Hydra, admiral and briefly prime
minister
Markos Botsaris, leader of the Souliotes
Hadziyiannis Mexis, leader of Spetses
Nikolaos Krieziotis, leader of the Greek Revolution in Euboea



Presidents of Greece
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Pavlos Kountouriotis, admiral and later politician



Prime Ministers of Greece
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Antonios Kriezis, served in Greek navy during the revolution,
Dimitrios Voulgaris
Athanasios Miaoulis
Diomidis Kiriakos
Alexandros Korizis
Petros Voulgaris
Alexandros Diomidis



Greek politicians
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Theodoros Pangalos, former minister of Foreign Affairs, member of PASOK



Clergymen
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, incumbent Archbishop of Athens.



Military
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Theodoros Pangalos, general and briefly military dictator.


Artists
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Andreas Kriezis, painter
Nikos Engonopoulos,painter and poet
Dimitris Lyacos, poet and playwright