΄Αντε τώρα να βρεις άκρη!
Fudzi haraua di la Armân Έφυγε η χαρά των ΒλάχωνO gione o xinite παλικάρι, ξενητεμένε
s-pri fatsa cură fântâni στο πρόσωπο τρέχουν βρύση
di lacriñi upărite από δάκρυα ζεστά
ca si au maratsîl i –n cheptlu –alor γιατί έχουν οι ταλαίπωροι στο στήθος τους
un dοr té treaca nu are ένα πόνο που δεν περνάει
s-kirire asteapta un popor και ο χαμός περιμένει έναν λαό
Είναι λίγο δακρύβρεχτο το ποίημα, αλλά δίνει μια κάποια ιδέα για μια πραγματικότητα καταδικασμένη στην αφάνεια.
Φαντάζομαι ότι για τους περισσότερους θα είναι η πρώτη φορά που βλέπουν κείμενο στα βλάχικα.
Το βρήκα εδώ σ΄ένα άρθρο της Ελένης Αμπατζή,
και σκέφτηκα ότι είναι ένα καλό σχόλιο για το απερίγραπτο πρωτοσέλιδο της "Ωραίας Σαμαρίνας",
που καθώς δεν αντέχω στον πειρασμό, σας το φωτογραφίζω, (μ΄ένα κλικ μεγαλώνει) αλλά δεν έχω το κουράγιο να το σχολιάσω
;_-(
Δεχόμαστε πάντως συμβουλές ψυχιάτρων, ψυχολόγων, νευρολόγων, κοινωνιολόγων, ιστορικών, βαλκανιολόγων, γλωσσολόγων, μπετατζήδων, καλογέρων και τέλος πάντων ειδικευμένου προσωπικού, αδιάφορο αν είναι αλλοπαθητικοί ή ομοιοπαθητικοί.
Πρόκειται για μάλλον προχωρημένη περίτωση σχιζοφρένειας, η υπόθεση σηκώνει ντιβάνι και διεπιστημονική συνεργασία.
(εδώ έχει πολύ υλικό για τα Βαλκάνια, μόνο που είναι στα γαλλικά...)
posted by eikonoplastis at 12:48 π.μ.
12 Comments:
Though I understood only in part your lines on Vlachs, the Samarina newspaper front-page that you insert speaks for itself. It's quite sad that the Vlachs are urged to ditch their mother tongue. Yet those who edit such paper are just a minority (I hope) who are part of the Greek establishment, and who want -in a strange politically correct manner ('a la greque'of course) to please the Greek establishment by proving their 'patriotism'. As a Vlach whose family originates in Pindhos I am too aware of the 'lethal concoction' of dimarchoi, papadhes, agrofilakoi (I almost wrote 'agrio-filaki'), astinomoi, teachers etc. who reign supreme in the deeply conservative rural backwaters (vlachochoroi included) of Greece.
The Vlach issuse is in Greece just another carefully preserved taboo. The Vlach of that country are just unlucky to live in a place which for the sake of homogenity and 'unity' is sacrificing any right to be 'different'. The Vlach language is a considered in Greece a menace.
Here's another article on Vlachs if you've got time to read it
SE Times on Vlachs
I end my too long comment by saying in Vlach (language that many opposants of it claim 'cannot be written')
Inclinaciuni la tutsi armanilii tsi au vreari ti grailu sh limba alor di muma. Noi avemu limba sh locul a nostru tu istorie. Banam tu Gartsie ama nu him gretsi. Va s-vina atsea dzua ti armani, candu tu una naua Ivropa, limba anoastra di muma va s-hiba azburata fara urshine cu tuti boatsile!
2/12/05 10:56
I bet I first rather translate the main point of my post: It´s kind of weird that a linguistic minority askes for herself the right not to be taught in their own language!
It´s so obviously obnoxious to witness how a timid effort for saving the vlach language is regarded to be a dangerous conspirative attack originated by dark circles.
Dear anonymous frate,
I ´ll try to tell you things as I see them.
According to classic sociologic criteria the balcanian vlachs could easily be considered a nation. But history hasn´t been equally grateful to all the nations. The Vlachs, whose presence is spread all over the Balcans (being allaround, but being nowhere many) had no chance to be heard. It´s since a century where, due to lots of new borders, ethnic cleaness(es), alien interests, economy factors (...) vlachs have been urged to accept a new concept. That of nationality. (We had to accept that greek, albanian or ex-yugoslavian citizenship, bulgarian, rumanian, is more important than the vlach identity). Our great-grandfathers were urged to feel like part of a state, even if none of the states accepted them as what they really were.
Since then, any positive approach to the subject has been disqualified. "Traitors", "trojan horses", "fascist agents", "communist thieves", are some of the most common words in recent vlach history. Always depending on the side you are on. I think vlachs made a lot of mistakes, that´s for sure. On the other hand there was no way to "do the right thing", being a vlach in 20th century.
We have lots in common, and many differences too. History teaches us lessons, (and there is lot of bitter moments to be considered), but life is ahead. We shoud be able to have a vision for a new start. Our condition as a transfronteers-nation, should be understood as a bridge between 8 states of the region. We don´t want new borders, we need respect. Vlachs just need to have the right of practicing their language, of exchanging experiences, of living in normal conditions in this new Europe.
Thank you very much for your comments, I have to admit that although I speak 5 languages, my vlach is really poor ):, -(
With the help of an old dictionary, I’m trying to understand the part written in vlach. It’s not that easy, and as I live 2500 km away from any vlach speaker I know, I can’t say I got it 100%…. Soon come!
Many rivers to cross,
;)
2/12/05 18:09
να τα γράψω και στα ελληνικά;
2/12/05 18:10
Διαβάστε κι αυτό
2/12/05 18:34
Dear Nikos,
First let me apologize for not translating the Vlach language post-scriptum of my initial (and badly spelled comment). I was just expressing there my hope that in a new, liberal Europe (will 'she' really ever come into being? hmmm) the Vlachs will dare to speak loud a language that otherwise they speak these days only furtively and behind close doors. You are right now thousand of miles away from say, such Vlach village as Livadhi (Vlacho-Livadhon) which lies at the foot of Olymbos. You are at the right 'altitude' so you stand a chance to hear Vlach there.
But even in such a place (off the ethnikos dhromos) you would need to eavesdrop or to clandestinely enter the homes of the villagers in order to hear Vlach. While visiting the above mentioned place, one September, I chatted in Vlach with a 16 year old waitress named A. In the kitchen of the kapheneion (where I got lost while searching for the lavatory) they were speaking Vlach too while doing the washing up. Yes, such humble circumstances suit well the humble Vlach language. The old folks of Livadhon, all clad in black, who by now have nothing to lose, do not bother to pretend anymore and use Vlach openly in public. Though even they take precautions, so to speak. They only whisper in Vlach.
You need again to eavesdrop, to pretend you want to take a picture and you search the right angle while trying to catch their words.
I totally agree with your point as to the Vlachs' lacking any sense of nationhood. They remain a tribe, a loose tribe whose members constantly leave the ranks of the tribe to join 'nations'. A nation is an 'imagined community' and as long as you fit the profile of it and you 'imagine' strong enough being a part of it and speak its 'official' language you are free to become its 'member'. But it comes at a high price. There's no such as a thing as a 'free lunch' as they say in the Anglo-Saxon world. The price the Vlach have to pay is the loss of their language. No wonder that many Vlachs (or Vlachophones as they call themselves) are convinced they 'do not need' the Vlach taught in schols. The establishment encourages such views and the newspapers host such headlines quite willingly.
P.S. Sorry for using again English, I wish my Greek is better so I can use it but unfortunately this is not the case.
3/12/05 11:27
Hello again, anonymous friend.
The vlach subject isn´t easy to explain in two lines.
There are so many "hot" issues, delicate points, heavy historical baggage, that one should be extremely careful in order to avoid making enemies. The fact is that the vlach language (how can I say "our language", if I don´t speak it?)is losing it´s opportunities to survive, day by day. That´s the battle. How can we manage to save the language from disappearing? There is a lot of problems:
1.All those dialects. Each valley, almost every village has it´s own vocabulary, pronounciation,etc.
2.Depending on the country each vlach comunity belongs to, there is the influence of the national language as an extra factor of diferenciation
3.the alfabet. There is still non to be considered as the definitive vlach alfabet. You find 5 or 6 ways of spelling the same word, according to the author.
4.National-state-propaganda. There is not a single balcan state (...) which grants the linguistic rights of the vlachs. But almost all of them tend to use the vlach "question" to arise "minority problems" in the neighbouring countries.
5.Fear of repeating the mistakes of the past. Let´s take the example of the greek vlachs, who during the last century, have been divided and rivalising against each other, because A:the romanian minority schools, B:the fascist legionaries of Diamantis, C:the WW2 partisan movement and the greek civil war,.... most of them just want to avoid even remembering, it´s painful.
6.The lack of dialogue. We have to admit that there is no tradition of talking openly, nobody really wants to listen a different point of view, there is lots of wide-spread false beliefs that cannot get questioned easily , prejudices, ...
My point of view is that we can only advance by having a positive attitude. Don´t critisise, but exchange. Don´t complain, but suggest. Don´t fear, but hope.
1.We should accept a common code of communication based on respect, transparency, sincerity. A main point should be that we don´t intent any change of borders, we don´t need to create new frontiers in the Balcans. We need more communication, not a new reason for fighting.
2.Make a huge effort of collecting all possible oral monuments.
3.Bring to life an Academy for the Vlach Language. An authority who has to determine a unique (or multiple) alfabet, a dictionary, the vlach encyclopedia and so on.
4.study other international experiences of similar cases. We don´t have to reinvent everything. Lot´s of regions in Europe have made useful experiences that can be helpful for us.
5.organise learning-camps for people like me, give a chance to learn speaking vlach to all those who wish to.
....
I don´t know if I´m not going too far, the truth is my comment is too long,...
(Shouldn´t we find a better virtual-place for our vlach thoughts?)
Don´t worry for using english, the main thing is to understand eachother, isn´t it?
That´s all for the moment, have a nice week.
4/12/05 23:06
http://www.eurolang.org
Three Greek journalists found guilty of defamation of Vlach language activist
Florina - Lerin, Saturday, 10 December 2005 by Georgios N. Papadakis
Last Tuesday an Athens court found three Greek journalists guilty for ‘revilement’, a slightly lesser charge than libel under Greek law. They are the publisher Dimitris Rizos, director G. Bertsos and editor-in-chief K. Sarrikostas of the daily newspaper Adesmeftos Typos. It followed a successful lawsuit filed by vice president of EBLUL's Greek Member State Committee, native Vlach / Aromanian Sotiris Bletsas.
The initial charges against the three journalists were libel and revilement but because of a new law implemented in July 2005, libel was commuted to revilement.
Additionally, because the offending article was written in September 2004, therefore before July 2005, there was no custodial sentence for the defendants that would have led, in similar cases, to one year’s imprisonment.
The anonymous newspaper article contained various libellous allegations against Bletsas, a well-known activist on linguistic diversity issues in Greece and abroad. He was characterized as a “pro-Skopjan agent who…provocatively spreads propaganda for non-existent, so-called minority languages in Greece …and was convicted for it in the past”.
Members of the Greek Parliament belonging to Nea Dimokratia (the ruling Conservative party) were present at court to defend Rizos, Bertsos and Sarrikostas. According to MP Katerina Papakosta’s testimony, there was no evidence to prove that the allegations in the article were directed specifically against Mr. Bletsas.
Another parliamentarian, Vyron Polydoras claimed that he is in favour of protecting the Aromanian (Vlach) language, and had signed the 1333 Recommendation of the Council of Europe in 1997, but only as long as the language did not harm Greek national interests.
The third MP that testified, Evgenios Haitidis, is the one that initially brought Bletsas to court for distributing EBLUL leaflets in 1995.
Mr Bletsas was found innocent and has since filed a compensational lawsuit against Haitidis that will go to retrial in early 2007.
Right after the court’s decision Mr Bletsas told Eurolang that even without fines it will be a “good lesson” for anybody that tries to defame minority rights activists in the future.
He also urged the Greek government to “co-operate with EBLUL in order to save and promote minority languages” that are threatened with extinction.
Minority languages in Greece include Aromanian (Vlach), Macedonian, Pomak, Arvanite, Romani and Turkish. Only Turkish is currently being taught at minority schools in western Thrace. (Eurolang © 2005)
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13/12/05 17:44
Hi Nikos. Please delete my previous message. Here's the correct link of this latest 'news'.
http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2545&Itemid=1&lang=en
Three Greek journalists found guilty of defamation of Vlach language activist
Florina - Lerin, Saturday, 10 December 2005 by Georgios N. Papadakis
Last Tuesday an Athens court found three Greek journalists guilty for ‘revilement’, a slightly lesser charge than libel under Greek law. They are the publisher Dimitris Rizos, director G. Bertsos and editor-in-chief K. Sarrikostas of the daily newspaper Adesmeftos Typos. It followed a successful lawsuit filed by vice president of EBLUL's Greek Member State Committee, native Vlach / Aromanian Sotiris Bletsas.
The initial charges against the three journalists were libel and revilement but because of a new law implemented in July 2005, libel was commuted to revilement.
Additionally, because the offending article was written in September 2004, therefore before July 2005, there was no custodial sentence for the defendants that would have led, in similar cases, to one year’s imprisonment.
The anonymous newspaper article contained various libellous allegations against Bletsas, a well-known activist on linguistic diversity issues in Greece and abroad. He was characterized as a “pro-Skopjan agent who…provocatively spreads propaganda for non-existent, so-called minority languages in Greece …and was convicted for it in the past”.
Members of the Greek Parliament belonging to Nea Dimokratia (the ruling Conservative party) were present at court to defend Rizos, Bertsos and Sarrikostas. According to MP Katerina Papakosta’s testimony, there was no evidence to prove that the allegations in the article were directed specifically against Mr. Bletsas.
Another parliamentarian, Vyron Polydoras claimed that he is in favour of protecting the Aromanian (Vlach) language, and had signed the 1333 Recommendation of the Council of Europe in 1997, but only as long as the language did not harm Greek national interests.
The third MP that testified, Evgenios Haitidis, is the one that initially brought Bletsas to court for distributing EBLUL leaflets in 1995.
Mr Bletsas was found innocent and has since filed a compensational lawsuit against Haitidis that will go to retrial in early 2007.
Right after the court’s decision Mr Bletsas told Eurolang that even without fines it will be a “good lesson” for anybody that tries to defame minority rights activists in the future.
He also urged the Greek government to “co-operate with EBLUL in order to save and promote minority languages” that are threatened with extinction.
Minority languages in Greece include Aromanian (Vlach), Macedonian, Pomak, Arvanite, Romani and Turkish. Only Turkish is currently being taught at minority schools in western Thrace. (Eurolang © 2005)
13/12/05 18:03
>Minority languages in Greece include Aromanian (Vlach), Macedonian, Pomak, Arvanite, Romani and Turkish. Only Turkish is currently being taught at minority schools in western Thrace.
Linguistic rights is something unknown in Greece, eith the possible exception of turkish. The above statement by many people would be considered a treason, though it is 100% truth.
Just to mention that Bletsas was brought to court on the allegation that he was distributing a EU leaflet stating that vlach language is spoken in Greece, while in the Haitidis and vlach community leaders such a thing was a lie!
BTW, I am 'greek'of no vlach origin.
18/12/05 19:41
Dear friend,
I don't know if you know vlach well so that we can understand ourselves with this language, so I wrote in English. I am a Vlach from FYROM, and got quite interested in the newspaper you presented. I am currently learning greek and know some from before. I hope that you will be able to send me a copy of this newspaper.
All the best,
Dragan Georgievski
29/12/05 01:16
Hello Dragan,
unfortunately my vlach isn´t good enough.
It´s rather not existing, but I really would love to learn it.
In fact, me and some friends have the intention to make a vlach learning seminar this summer in Greece.
Any help is wellcome
Have a nice year
Nikos
12/1/06 19:49
Hi Nikos,
A Vlach language learning 'session' this summer cannot be but an excellent idea! In the meanwhile, here's the latest news as to the Vlachs of -the more or less neighbouring to Greece- Serbia
Minority groups talk to senior officials | 15:46 January 16 | Beta
BELGRADE -- Monday – Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica met with representatives of Serbian minority groups today.
Kostunica met with Roma officials, while Tadic talked to Vlach representatives.
Officials of the Serbian Vlach Council spoke to Tadic about the problems which the Vlach community is having with preserving and realizing their national identity within public activities, according to council officials. They stated that Serbia has changes that it must make within its laws regarding minority and human rights, which will better enable minority groups to live properly within Serbia.
According to the council, Tadic supported the initiative to hold elections for a council for the Serbian Vlach community, as well as the National Council for the Cultural Autonomy of Serbian Vlachs.
20/1/06 10:40
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