Re: Helping Humanity Grow Up (An Orgah project)
Ok, I'm aware that the past decade or two could be called "let's take a pot-shot at Serbia" but let us give it a rest, shall we? It is getting ridiculous. Part of the bad rep we've got in the nineties led every nationalist in surrounding countries to blame Serbia in one way or another because their nation is not big/rich/cool enough. Now we have nationalists in Macedonia claiming ancient lineage directly from Alexander the Great and how Serbs forced them all to declare as Serbs and at the same time, nationalists from Bulgaria are saying the all people in Macedonia are actually Bulgarians and Serbs invented Macedonian nationality to take Macedonia away from Bulgaria. When you look at them together, those two things are a logical paradox, but who gives a them? Let's put the blame Serbia and Serbs for everything we don't like. It is by far the easiest way. It's also popular and catches on quickly...Originally Posted by Cronos Impera
Concerning Vlachs - well, calling them Romanians is pretty far fetched. If you know the troublesome history of the Balkans, you know that invaders as a rule settled on the fertile plains, pushing those who were there before them to hills and mountains. Relative seclusion of those groups are the primary reason we have so many different small ethnic groups in the Balkans. They lived in small communities, with very little contact with the rest people. Vlachs are one such community. Most of them don't consider themselves Romanians. They consider themselves related to Romanians but not Romanians. Language is not the same (they speak Aromanian, not Romanian), names are not the same, customs are not the same. They're treated as a separate ethnic community in Serbia and they were allowed to declare themselves as anything they like. In the 2002 census, almost every single ethnic group was given as option for people to declare themselves as, plus the blank space to write one if it is not on the list and it was forbidden to question it under any circumstances, and I mean any circumstances. If you want an example how strictly it was, I can tell you that under 2002 census, there are about 150 Eskimos and 200 Martians (yes, aliens from planet Mars) living in Serbia. There's also some Inuits, Incas and god knows what else, also in smaller number. Vlachs tended to declare themselves as Vlachs mostly. Also a good portion of them, although aware of their Vlach origin, declared themselves as Serbs, not unlike German-Americans declare themselves American by nationality but are aware and respectful of their German roots. Very, very few of them declared themselves as Romanians.
Furthermore, never in history were Vlachs not allowed to declare themselves Romanian or were denied their basic human rights. Their identity as Vlachs and their secluded communities date back to the early middle ages (they were mentioned as a class of cattle breeders in Dusan's Code from the mid XIV century), long before the idea of Romania or Romanian nationality existed. In the 19th and 20th century, when most Balkans countries liberated from by then backward Ottoman Empire, Vlachs and many other small ethnic communities found themselves more and more connected with the rest of the population because technology and infrastructure development. Some groups, Vlachs being one of them, managed to preserve their identity although many of them quite freely felt Serbian. In fact, the greatest Serbian play-writer (like Shakespeare in England, although he wrote mostly satirical comedies) was a Vlach by birth. He wrote in Serbian language and felt Serbian. He even legally changed his name from Alchiviadi al Nusha (not exactly a pure Romanian name, wouldn't you say?) to Branislav Nusic. He fought in the Serbian army, was the head of the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad and in general had a brilliant career.
If you consider them to be Romanians just because their language is in the same group as Romanian, you really need to rethink your position. Modern Romanian borrowed a lot of Slavic words while Aromanian (language spoken by Vlachs) was influenced heavily by Greek. Serbian and Czech are in the same group linguistically, but that doesn't mean that Serbs are Czechs or that Czechs are Serbs. In fact, Serbs and Croats; Americans and English; Portuguese and Brazilians; Germans and Austrians; etc... speak the same language but that doesn't mean they're interchangeable. Vlachs used to live in relatively isolated communities and developed their language and culture separately from Serbs or Romanians. After technology and infrastructure developed enough they've stopped being isolated communities and some of them were naturally assimilated in the majority, although most of them still consider themselves not as Serbs or Romanians but as Vlachs... Maybe you think they're Romanians, or you believe they should be Romanians or that anyone speaking a language similar to Romanian should be Romanian by nationality. And just for your information, it was around 1000 years ago that Vulgar Latin spoken in the Balkan provinces of the Roman Empire split into four languages: Daco-Romanian (evolved into modern Romanian language), Megleno-Romanian, Istro-Romanian and Aromanian (spoken by Vlachs). Now, I'm aware that there are some nationalistic theories in Romania how speakers of any of those languages are Romanians. For example, that's why Nikola Tesla is considered a Romanian according to Romanian textbooks, because he's of supposed Istro-Romanian origin (Istro-Romanians live in modern day Croatia, btw). Anyway, it's your opinion and you're entirely entitled to it, but don't use lies against Serbs or Serbia, especially about ethnic issues and human rights violations. We had a lot of bad rep because of that (a good portion of it rightly deserved), so please refrain yourself from spreading additional lies (as we've had more than enough of those as well)...
Lastly, if you don't believe me, go and check for yourself. You're not across the world and eastern part of Serbia where Vlachs live is probably no more than several hours trip by car for you, and ask them yourself do they think they're denied their basic human rights, are they forbidden from declaring as Romanians or forced to declare as Serbs.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks