Wallachians (Serbia)
According to the 2002 census, the Wallachians form a national minority in Serbia with around 40,000 members . Their settlement area, the eastern Serbian mountain region between the Danube , Morava and Timok rivers , is part of the Serbian districts of Braničevo , Bor , Zaječar and Pomoravlje .
The Wallachians from Serbia are ethnic Romanians and have been counted as a national minority since 2007 alongside the Romanian minority from Vojvodina . In contrast to the case of the Romanians from the autonomous province of Vojvodina, where Romanian is an official regional language, the rights of the Wallachians from central Serbia are significantly restricted. The Wallachians are Orthodox Christians.
Language and folklore
The Wallachians in eastern Serbia speak the Oltenesc dialect , which belongs to the southern Romanian group, and Bănățean , which belongs to the northern Romanian group. In the 20th century, many Serbian words have invaded, especially those that characterize modern life (e.g. technical). These terms could not be borrowed from the Romanian language because of the lack of Romanian school lessons. In the Romanian-speaking population of Vojvodina, the influence of the Serbian language is significantly lower due to the Romanian school instruction there.
The folklore is shaped by Romanian. Traditions have been preserved in the villages that are otherwise only to be found in south-western Romania . The national costumes of the men correspond to those from Wallachia. Their “cap”, which is also common throughout Wallachia, was already worn by the northern Thracians ( Dacians ) and is also depicted on the Trajan Column in Rome. The costumes of the women, however, show parallels to the Banat- Romanian.
Definition of terms
The word Wallach to denote an ethnic group is widespread in Southeastern Europe. This mostly refers to the Balkan Romansh population. The term Wallachian ( vlasi ) also appears in the former Yugoslavia , namely as a name for a nationality. In the censuses of the SFR Yugoslavia, both the Aromanian and the Megleno- Romanian- speaking population of the Republic of Macedonia , the Istrian- speaking population of the Republic of Croatia and the Romanian-speaking population in eastern central Serbia were summarized as Wallachians . In the native Romanian name they call themselves rumân (plural: rumâni ), in the Serbian language they call themselves vlah (plural: vlasi ). In the Serbian censuses that took place before the First World War , all Wallachians are counted as "Romanians".
See also main article Wallachia
history
The origin of the Wallachians in eastern Serbia is disputed. While the Serbian side likes to refer to them as immigrants from neighboring Wallachia , for the Romanian side they make up the Romanesque remaining population from Roman times. In the late Roman Empire , today's eastern Serbia formed parts of the provinces Dacia ripensis and Moesia prima . Before the Ottoman conquest , the area mostly belonged to the Bulgarian Empire . Even with the largest expansion of the Serbian Empire around 1355, only the western part of today's Wallachian settlement area (up to the ridges of the Serbian Ore Mountains) was incorporated. At the same time, it was never part of the Principality of Wallachia on the other side of the Danube . At the beginning of the 19th century the area became part of the nucleus of the new Serbian state. When the Serbian Principality was founded in 1817, the western part of the Serbian Ore Mountains belonged to Serbia. Only after the Peace of Adrianople of 1829 and the subsequent agreement of June 10, 1833 on the status of Serbia towards the gate, the eastern border of Serbia on the Timok River was established. Since then, the Wallachians have been citizens of Serbia and Yugoslavia. As a result of the Treaty of Neuilly (1919) , the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes also received a small stretch of land between the Timok River and the Balkan Mountains in which Romanian is also spoken.
The number and proportion of the Wallachian population in eastern Serbia, according to the 1921 Yugoslav census (*):
- In the Timočka Krajina region:
- Ključ district: 15,037 (86.5%)
- Brza Palanka: 13,918 (82.2%)
- Poreč: 9,384 (72.7%)
- Negotin: 17,325 (45.1%)
- Krajina: 5,940 (28.8%)
- Boljevac: 17,856 (55.7%)
- Zaječar: 15,921 (31.5%)
- In the Braničevo region:
- Ram: 3,251 (10.3%)
- Mlava: 11,983 (26%)
- Morava: 5,085 (17%)
- Zvižd: 11,356 (57.6%)
- Homolje: 11,622 (56.6%)
- In the Pomoravlje region:
- Resava: 2,380 (8.3%)
- Despotovac: 1,836 (8.7%)
- Belica: 739 (1.8%)
- Paračine: 599 (1.4%)
- Temnić: 295 (1.3%)
(*) It should be noted that the area coverage of the administrative units of that time does not always correspond to the current one. Only the units with a Wallachian population of at least 1% are mentioned.
Population numbers and minority rights
In the 2002 census in Serbia and Vojvodina , 40,054 people identified themselves as Wallachians, 39,953 of them residing in Serbia. The district with the largest Wallachian population is the Bor district with 11.22% ( Braničevo 7.02%, Zaječar 5.20%, Pomoravlje 0.90%). In no major community do the Wallachians achieve a relative or absolute majority. The largest Wallachian population shares are in the large municipalities of Opština Boljevac (Zaječar district) with 26.26% and Kučevo (Braničevo district) with 27.67%. The large municipality with the highest number of Wallachians is Bor with 10,064 (18.03%).
How much these numbers tell is pretty uncertain. Several hundred thousand Romanian-speaking people are expected in eastern Serbia (the Serbian census of 1895 recorded 159,510 "Romanians" ( rumuni ) in eastern Serbia , the Yugoslav census of 1921 142,773 Romanians / Tsinzars , and the 1953 census of only 36,728 "Wallachians" ( vlasi ), but another 198,728 "Serbs with Wallachian mother tongue"). Ethnic maps from the time of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia still show large areas in eastern Serbia as Wallachian majority areas. After the Second World War, however, the number of Wallachians dropped dramatically. In the 1981 census, only 25,596 people in Serbia identified themselves as Wallachians, and in 1991 only 17,807. The current census results of 40,054 Wallachians in Serbia appear all the more astonishing. Likewise, 4,157 people in eastern Serbia indicated their ethnic origin as "Romanian" (Serbian rumuni ) - in 1991 there were only 42 people. This fact and the louder and louder demands in recent years for similar rights as those of the Romanians from Vojvodina (mother tongue schooling and church services in Romanian) suggests a growing Romanian national consciousness among them. However, many Wallachians have a Serbian national consciousness and still declare themselves “Serbs” in the censuses (even if the number is apparently decreasing). This is a result of the Serbization policy introduced at the beginning of the 19th century: the Romanian-speaking minority was never offered Romanian-language instruction, and Orthodox services were only allowed to be held in Serbian. Newborns could only be baptized with Serbian first names and the Romanian family names were Serbized by adding the ending -ić or -ović - e.g. B. Romanian Iepure (rum. Hare ) was Iepurović , the Romanian Craciun (rum. Christmas ) was Cračiunović , the Romanian Paun (rum. Pfaun ) was Paunovic , etc. In 1948 the local Romanian language magazines were Vorba noastră ( rum. Our Language) and Lucrul nostru ( Rum. Our work), as well as the Romanian-language radio station of Radio Zăiceari, were banned as a reaction to the bad treatment of the Serbian minority in then Stalinist Romania ( deportation to the Bărăgan steppe ).
The Romanian-speaking minority in Vojvodina, on the other hand, cannot complain about the lack of minority rights, since Yugoslavia committed itself with the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 to guarantee the rights of the minorities living here. These rights have always been respected. While a Romanian consulate already exists in Vršac (Vojvodina) , the Romanian and Serbian authorities are negotiating the establishment of a second consulate in the neighboring state in Bor .
politics
In 2012, Romanian European policy approved Serbia's EU candidate status from responding to Romanian demands for recognition of the Wallachians as a Romanian minority.
2002 census
This following table breaks down the proportion of the Wallachian population in the relevant Serbian districts. The data is based on the 2002 census.
| The number of Wallachians in Eastern Serbia according to the 2002 census and the estimates of Wallachian / Romanian organizations in Serbia |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative unit ( district and large municipality ) |
Population 2002 |
Wallachian 2002 |
Estimated number (%) |
|||
| Braničevo district | 200.503 | 14,083 | 76,300 (38.5%) | |||
| Veliko Gradiste | 20,659 | 354 | 3,800 (18.1%) | |||
| Golubac | 9,913 | 870 | 5,200 (52%) | |||
| Žabari | 13,034 | 342 | 2,000 (15.4%) | |||
| Žagubica | 14,823 | 3,268 | 11,400 (76%) | |||
| Kučevo | 18.808 | 5,204 | 15,700 (82.6%) | |||
| Malo Crniće | 13,853 | 401 | 6,100 (43.8%) | |||
| Petrovac | 34,511 | 3,535 | 18,200 (52.8%) | |||
| Požarevac | 74.902 | 109 | 13,900 (18.6%) | |||
| Bor district | 146,551 | 16,449 | 109,900 (74.99%) | |||
| boron | 55,817 | 10,064 | 46,100 (82.2%) | |||
| Kladovo | 23,613 | 568 | 16,300 (74.1%) | |||
| Majdanpek | 23,703 | 2,817 | 18,600 (78.2%) | |||
| Negotin | 43,418 | 3,000 | 28,900 (65.8%) | |||
| Zaječar district | 137,561 | 7.155 | 27,100 (19.7%) | |||
| Boljevac | 15,849 | 4.162 | 10,200 (63.8%) | |||
| Zaječar | 65,969 | 2,981 | 16,100 (24.4%) | |||
| Knjaževac | 37,142 | 3 | 600 (1.62%) | |||
| Sokobanya | 18,571 | 9 | 200 (1.05%) | |||
| Pomoravlje district | 227,435 | 2,049 | 33,200 (14.6%) | |||
| Despotovac | 25,611 | 427 | 16,600 (64.82%) | |||
| Jagodina | 70,894 | 30th | 1,400 (1.97%) | |||
| Paraćin | 58,301 | 1 | 700 (1.2%) | |||
| Rekovac | 13,551 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Svilajnac | 25,511 | 235 | 10,300 (40.37%) | |||
| Ćuprija | 33,567 | 1,356 | 4,200 (12.5%) | |||
| Podunavlje district | 226,589 | 44 | 8,800 (3.88%) | |||
| Smederevo | 109,809 | 9 | 4,800 (4.5%) | |||
| Velika Plana | 44,470 | 35 | 4,000 (9.1%) | |||
| Nišava district | ||||||
| Svrljig | 17,284 | 1 | 400 (1.78%) | |||
| Total in eastern Serbia | 39,882 | 245,700 | ||||
| Belgrade | 1,373,651 | 71 | ||||
| Central Serbia (total) | 5,466,009 | 39,953 | 260,000 | |||
| Vojvodina | 2.031992 | 101 | 35,000 | |||
| Serbia (overall) | 7,498,001 | 40,054 | 300,000 (4%) | |||
|
Source: Serbian census of 2002 The estimates of the Romanian and Wallachian organizations from the last column are based on the results of previous censuses. |
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Web links
- Website of the Wallachian Federation in Serbia (Serb / English / Romanian) * A summary report on the situation of the Romanian-speaking population in Serbia on the website of Electronic Banat (English)
- The heritage of Vlachs
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thede Kahl: Ethnicity and spatial distribution of the Aromanians in Southeast Europe. Münster 1999. page 24
- ↑ MV FIFOR. Assimilation or Acculturalization: Creating Identities in the New Europe. The case of Vlachs in Serbia. Published in Cultural Identity and Ethnicity in Central Europe, Jagellonian University, Cracow
- ^ Deutsche Welle, April 25, 2003 ( Memento of January 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Gustav Weigand, Linguistic Atlas of the Dacorumänischen Sprachgebiets , 1909, Leipzig: Barth.
- ↑ Formula As, Nr.672
- ^ Formula As, No. 396
- ^ Martin Winter Romanian Resistance. Bucharest blocks EU candidate status for Serbia , Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 29, 2012 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
