20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

894 Viorel StănilăNone of these happen in pre-capitalist Albania of the past 20 th century.The evolution from the stage of ethno-rural consciousness to thestage of full national consciousness is thus stuck at the stage of incipientnationalism 19 (aware of the ethnic differences, but not of its mission tomodernize society). This evolution has been halted as well by internaldistinctiveness’s of the Aromanian society: the lack of adherence to theRomanian identity project of the educated classes and the intractibility ofthe rural masses as by external factors: the political-economical context inAlbania.The ingredients of a successful identity project are:1. The awareness of ethnical differences: therein, two of our sourcescontain clear references to the precarious nature of the dissimilarityfeeling which inspired the Aromanians towards the Albanians:”… the Aromanians in Albania don’t come as an ethnicorganized minority; that they have always lived in the best ofterms with the Albanians, fighting for their rights together underthe Turkish occupation, but that, being lesser in number and morespread, they had the course of time infiltrated the Albanians andhave been assimilated by these, regardless of their claim of beingcompletely equal with the Albanians”. (Report)”However, one must bear in mind that the entirety of ourRomanians in Albania is not considered to be a foreign ethnicminority, as well as the fact that it didn’t organize and declared itselfan ethnic minority to the present, relying on its special locationon the Albanian territory, on the virtues obtained in battles led togain the independence of Albania, on the friendship connectionswhich had always existed between Albanians and Romanians andon the rights earned by Romania during the Turkish occupation”.(Synthesis)2. A nationalistic ideology which the rural masses were not ready towelcome, lacking a sufficiently trained through instruction intellectualability.Or it could be that the very education of the minorities, the essentialpoint of this ethnic algorithm, bore the most impact because of the measuresof the inter-bellum Albanian state, along with the religious service in themother tongue. And the lack of talent for education of the majority of19Which can be consolidated into proto-nationalism without further evolution(Idem, 72.)