20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

776 Adina Berciu-Drăghicescub) “Greek men” or "repudiated" who were against the national current,being in favor of the Greeks and it seems that they often aimed at economic,social and political success. Their number was bigger than that of nationalistRomanians.In 1879 in Bucharest was founded the Aromanian Culture Society. Itspurpose was that, in the limits of the laws and habits within the OttomanEmpire, to help spread of the Romanian language in schools, to "insist onthe proper state of Romanian churches and communities in the right partof the Danube and across the Balkans, to monitor the course of alreadyexisting schools and set new ones". Also, schools would be equipped, "withbooks, libraries, equipments” and “urge to edit books for the Romaniansof those regions" 24 . The establishment of this Society has again led to therevolt of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Joachim the III rd , who on the8 th of December 1879 addressed a Patriarchal encyclical to PelagoviciMetropolitan Bishop urging, "to work (...) in agreement to the localauthorities and to watch so that the Church be sheltered of the smallestworks of Romanian propaganda" 25 .Confrontations with Greeks’ hostility continued. The Greeks went upthe point that they have claimed that there are not Romanians in Macedonia,Epir, Thessaly, Continental Greece, Albania, but only "Hellenic vlachs,namely Greeks who speak Romanian". In a document dated March 1886issued by the Greek consul Panurias in Bitolia, and addressed to Pikion,school teacher and pan Hellenic agent of Kastoria (Macedonia) was statedthat: "Under ethnological report, the Romanian element is almost unknownin Europe. That is why we should stay away from pronouncing or remindingthe word Romanian (in italics). Thus in all the appointments showingthe origin or existence of the Romanians, for example Vlaho-Clisura,Vlaho-Livada, the word Vlaho should be put apart and write nothing morethan Clisura, Livada. The word Romanian must not appear anywhere" 26 .The same ideas were even asserted in the Greek press of the BalkanPeninsula and Romania 27 .However, by 1880, 24 Romanian schools were opened, of which 7were for girls and a middle school in Monastir; 5 for boys in Molovişte,planted in me feelings and true national consciousness, for which you condemn me todayto death".24Theodor Burada, op. cit., 18-19; Vasile Diamandi Aminceanul 1938, Romaniansfrom Balkan Peninsula, Bucharest, 122-123.25A.M.A.E., fund Problem 15, vol. 91, not paged.26Th. Burada, op. cit., 113-114.27Ibidem, 142.