Principality of Pindus

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The principality of Pindos was an attempt to found a state by some fascist adventurers in the Greek Pindos Mountains during World War II . The so-called principality had neither functioning state organs nor a clearly delimited state territory. Nor was it internationally recognized. So it was not a question of a state, rather the short-lived creation was completely under the influence of the Italian occupying power.

A group of fascist adventurers, called the Roman Legion , proclaimed the Principality of Pindos (Aromanian: Printsipat di la Pind ) in 1941 under the leadership of the native Aroman Alcibiades Diamandi (1893–1948 ). Apparently he had at times the support of fascist Italy , which had occupied large parts of Greece. The founding of the state, which is not recognized internationally, was presented in propaganda terms as the liberation of the Romanic Balkan people of the Aromanians. The capital of the state structure was Metsovo , the popular assembly, which never met, was planned in Trikala . In reality, the proclamation of independence had little effect. Diamandi provided the Italians with a militia of three hundred Aromanian fighters who were used in the fight against Greek resistance fighters. His attempt to obtain autonomy under Italian occupation for the Pindus region, Epirus , southern Albania , Thessaly and Greek Macedonia was never supported by the Italian military in reality. Some fighters of the Legion, which was angry among the Greek population, were disarmed and all military cooperation was soon ceased. Any form of self-government was always refused by the Italians. In 1942 the Italians finally deposed Diamandi, also because his troops found little support from the Aromanian population.

Diamandi went to Romania. In 1944, the Axis powers had to withdraw from the area. A few supporters of the "Princes of Pindus" were sentenced to prison terms in 1946 for war crimes. Diamandi was executed in Bucharest in 1948 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Short biography of Diamandis p. 4. (PDF, Romanian; 217 kB)
  2. ↑ Brunon Synak (Ed.): The ethnic identities of European minorities. Theory and case studies . Wydawnictwo Uniw. Gdańskiego, Danzig 1995, ISBN 83-7017-629-1 , p. 50.
  3. ↑ Davide Rodogno: Fascism's European empire. Italian occupation during the Second World War. Cambridge University Press, New York 2006, ISBN 0-521-84515-7 , p. 326.
  4. ↑ Eleni Haidia: The punishment of collaborators in northern Greece, 1945-1946. In: Mark Mazower (ed.): After the war was over. Reconstructing the family, nation and state in Greece, 1943-1960. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2000, ISBN 0-691-05842-3 , pp. 42-61, here: p. 46.
  5. ↑ Eleni Haidia: The punishment of collaborators in northern Greece, 1945-1946. In: Mark Mazower (ed.): After the war was over. Reconstructing the family, nation and state in Greece, 1943-1960. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2000, ISBN 0-691-05842-3 , pp. 42-61, here: p. 53.

literature

  • Patrick Thornberry, Miranda Bruce-Mitford: World Directory of Minorities. St. James Press 1990, p. 131.
  • Giannēs S. Koliopoulos, John S. Koliopoulos: Plundered Loyalties: Axis Occupation and Civil Strife in Greek West Macedonia . C. Hurst & Co, 1990, pp. 86ff.
  • Hugh Poulton: Who Are the Macedonians? C. Hurst & Co, 1995, p. 111.
  • Lena Divani: The Vlachs of Greece and the Italo-Rumanian Propaganda. (= Mannheimer Contributions to Classical Archeology and History of Greece 3) Thetis, Mannheim 1996, pp. 195–206;
  • Thede Kahl: Ethnicity and spatial distribution of the Aromanians in Southeast Europe. (= Münstersche geographical works, 43) Münster 1999.

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