TRA ARMANAMI

Aromanian people (populu Armȃnescu) are not the “most ancient people of them all”.

Nobody claims that.

Aromanian people (populu Armȃnescu) are not the “most ancient people of them all”.

Nobody claims that.

But, we have been present in this world long enough to have seen many nations coming to the Balkan Peninsula, some just passing through, some going away from here. 

Some of these newcomers have remained in the Balkans. Today, we live with them.

And we participate and survive everything that our neighbours do: “in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health”.

We have never started a war, neither with our neighbours, nor with any distant nations.

We do not have our own Nation-State; we live dispersed in several countries. But, our Homeland is Our Language. 

From the Latin, language of the Roman Empire, the Aromanian language (zborlu Armȃnescu) subsequently evolved through contact mainly with Greek but also with Slavic languages, Albanian and Turkish.

Aromanian customs are also a substrate of Ancient and Christian ones.

We have our own music, literature, fine arts. We are probably flattering ourselves when we say that, perhaps, our neighbours have borrowed some of that, and that our art is now woven into the entire memory of the Balkans today.

On the hundredth anniversary of PEN, the noblest association of writers in the world, we join this Organization, in order to try to preserve our Language, our Literature, our Culture, our Homeland. 

Our existence.