20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

National project for Aromanians in Albany during the interbellum... 895Aromanians can be noticed in the Telegram: ”…the poverty of the majorityof Aromanians and their lack of interest towards reading …”The national project concerning the Aromanians in Albany had beenimplemented in pre-capitalist conditions, which stripped it of the “breath ofprogress”, of the modernizing forces which could have really produced themutation from the proto-ethnic stage to that of completely matured nationalconsciousness through the assumption of politic action (the formation asnational minority). The previous attempts to collective organization inAromanians – jus vallachicum or the “căpitănatele”, had themselves notgone beyond the proto-ethnic stage either.In the plan concerning the analysis of the evolutions of nationalmovements suggested by Miroslav Hroch, the situation of the Aromaniansin Albania during the inter-bellum period would meet Stage A, when “asmall number of teachers, scholars, academics and a group of enthusiasticpersons had at first manifested a passionate concern for the study of thelanguage, culture and history” 20 of the said ethnic group. In order to achievea complete maturation of the national consciousness in Aromanians anotherstage should have followed: namely Stage B – the process of fermentationof the national consciousness, through which a considerable number ofpatriots-agitators would broadcast and circulate national ideas; Stage C –the complete national rebirth, in which large masses share national feelingsand carry on large scale projects.”The associating ethnic forms of Aromanians in Albania, as many asthere were, have been insufficient to have a mobilizing effect which wouldbe meaningful enough as well towards the intractibility of the masses, aswell as the social comfort of superior Aromanian social layers.In the light of these drawbacks, the lack of ethnic cohesion andeven opposing interests to national ones are added, as one can see in theSynthesis: “but all these means [of national action] can only be implementedby us successfully, when our Romanians, learning from the blemishes ofthe past and setting aside the quarrels and personal interests, sometimescompletely opposed to the Romanian interests, would organize themselvesin communities and immediately declare themselves an ethnic minority”.The solution suggested by the diplomats of the time regardedthe luring of the educated and wealthy layers of Aromanians througheconomic common interest and through an interesting educational offer.A success would have considerably boosted the prestige of the nationalmovement among the Aromanian masses, as the Telegram clearly shows:20Iulian Fruntaşu, op. cit., 18-19.