20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Romanian schools in the Balkan Peninsula during the 20 th century 777Megarova, Băiasa, Grebena, Samarina; secondary classes in Cruşova and amixed school in Constantinople 28 .A new statistical made on 1893, indicated the existence of 75 Romanianprimary schools, of which 55 were for boys and 20 for girls, a boys’ highschool in Bitolia (1880), a secondary school and a normal school for girlsin Bitolia (1888) . School population ranged between 3,500-4,000 pupils 29 .Therefore, according to the documents, in 1900 in the Ottoman Empire(the European part) there were 113 primary schools for girls (25), for boys(54) and mixed (34), 5 Romanian secondary schools and over 30 churcheswith the liturgy in the Romanian language. The Ottoman authoritiesinterfered with the Patriarch of Constantinople in order to allow theAromanian priests and communities to officiate in Romanian language, butthey did not allow the establishment of a Romanian metropolitan church ora bishopric as Bulgarians and Serbs from the empire had 30 .Then, in 1902-1903 the school situation was as follows: Albaniadistrict – 10 schools; Bitolia district – 27 schools; Epir district – 23 schools.The Romanian state has continued this period to subsidize Romanianschools and churches and to improve their management. Besides startingfrom the late nineteenth century, the Romanian public opinion, manyRomanian politicians were concerned about the fate of the BalkanRomanians, being considered with predilection a "state matter" 31 .In 1903, during the debates of the Assembly of Deputies, Ioan I.C.Bratianu, as foreign minister, stated: "We want to maintain the most cordialrelationships with the neighboring states, to reconcile the interests inquestion, as we know that by defending our own interests , we observe thelegitimate rights of our friends. We want to help the cultural developmentof a nation with whom we have feelings and origin connection, we wantthe entire population of the Ottoman Empire have the civilized conditionsof life and peaceful relations with the entire Eastern part of Europe" 32 . Thiscultural support has strong grounds in the history of Romanian-Balkan28A.M.A.E., Constantinopole fund, vol. 224 (1867-1893), passim.29Ibidem.30Maria Petre 1997, "Aromanians and Romanian-Turkish cultural relations in theearly twentieth century", in Historical Magazine, t. VIII, no. 11-12, 739-740; N. Ciachir1970, "Contributions to the history of Romanian-Turkish relationships history (1878-1914)" in ADIRI, no. 5, 17.31Pericle Papahagi 1912, Aromanians in historical-cultural point of view, Bucharest,passim.32The debates of the Assembly of Deputies, 1903-1904, meeting of the December 9 th ,1903, 144.