Arvanites

Arvanites

File:FArvanites.jpg
Regions with significant populations
Greece
Languages
Arvanitic, Greek
Religion
Greek Orthodox

Arvanites (Greek: Αρβανίτες, see below for more about names) are a population group in Greece whose linguistic heritage is Arvanitic, a form of Albanian. Arvanites are predominantly Greek Orthodox Christians and identify as Greeks. They used to be the predominant population element in several regions in the south of Greece up to the 19th century. Today, Arvanites have become largly assimilated into the Greek nation. Their language is under danger of extinction due to language shift towards Greek and due to large-scale migrations into the cities.

Foreign sources sometimes still refer to Arvanites as Albanians, as did older Greek authors up to the mid-20th century. Today, however, most Arvanites reject the designation as Albanians, and typically also object to being considered an "ethnic minority". For the same reason, many also dislike the use of the name Albanian to designate the language, and some prefer to regard it as a separate language rather than a dialect. Many Albanians, on the other hand, regard Arvanites as an Albanian minority group.

History

Arvanites in Greece originate from Albanian settlers who moved south at different times between the 12th and the 15th centuries from what is today southeastern Albania (Biris 1960, Poulos 1950, Panagiotopulos 1985). Some of this migration happened in the course of settlement programmes invited by the Byzantine and Frankish rulers of the time in order to re-populate deserted areas in the south. Thus, from 1350 A.D. to 1418 A.D., 81,200 Arvanite mercenaries and their families are said to have settled Greek lands after invitations from Byzantine emperors (Palaeologus Dynasty), the Catalans and the Venetians. Later movements are believed to have been motivated to evade Islamization after the Ottoman conquest.

Some Greek and Arvanite authors have proposed theories that link the ultimate ancestors of the Arvanites with either ancient Greek Dorians (Biris 1960) or pre-Greek "Pelasgians" (Kollias 1983). Following Biris, some characterise the Arvanite settlements in Greece as a "modern Dorian invasion". These views have little echo in mainstream scholarship to date.

Being Orthodox Christians, the Arvanites identified with the Greeks in their conflicts with Muslims during the time of the Ottoman Empire. Many Arvanites became national Greek heros, having played an important role fighting with the Greeks in the Greek War of Independence of 1821. With the formation of modern nations and nation states in the Balkans, Arvanites have come to be regarded as an integral part of the Greek nation. To identify as an 'Arvanites' in Greece is to identify with a constituent element of the Greek nation.

The history of the Arvanites or Albanites begins in Albania during the 13th century. The population of the region, entailing both Greeks and Albanians, undergoes large changes in the old system of factions and tight bonds that were developed during the previous centuries. A plethora of information can be gathered from Arvanitic songs, where the phara is belauded and the statutory promise besha, those two basic characteristics of those primarily agricultural and veterinarian communities.

The creation of the Despotate of Epirus is deemed by certain authors as a confirmation of the "ancient" bonds the Albanians and Greeks of the Byzantine Empire shared. These bonds entailed military collaboration where Greeks and Albanians fought together against Slavs and Venetians during the 1200s. Such military services did not benefit the people of the region. However, the aristocracy of the phares prospered since they were awarded court titles for their military services.

These aristocrats ruled over many regions and they progressively weakened the old administrative system. From traditional patriarchical leaders, they evolved into landlords. The new regime that the aristocracy imposed not only deprived the common people of their fortunes, but many times also resulted in their liberticide.

In their attempts to escape from these new conditions, the Arvanites were compelled to acquire nomadic habits. They saw immigration as the only solution to their problems created by the monopolizing of Albanian territories from ever more violent rulers. The Ottoman invasion was one more reason for the Arvanites' expatriation. During the 13th century, the Arvanites moved either volunteerly or involuntarily as a result of the numerous conflicts that were occurring in the Balkans. They kept their language intact while becoming Greek culturally, socially and nationally. Like the Vlachs, the Arvanites developed Greek national conscience and they self-identify as Greeks.

Leaders of phares, who for one reason or another kept the old traditions, assembled all of the peasants who were ready to begin a new course. The immigration via sea started around 1280 AD, and the land immigration peaked at the end of the 13th century since there are mentions of an Arvanitic presence in Thessaly in 1315 AD.

The Arvanite nomads migrate from Thessaly to Attica and from Acarnania to the south of the Peloponnese. Whether individually or en masse, these immigrations appear to be an escape reaction from social oppression that became intolerable or a reaction to the destruction of the old way of life that made the people feel disoriented.

The phares kept, along with their leaders, the Greek Orthodox faith, and they were thus entrenched in traditions. The rulers of the Albanian coastline were entrenched in Roman Catholicism. Thessaly was the first Greek region that accepted the migrations. According to Chalcocondylis, the Arvanites went from Thessaly to inner Macedonia up to Kastoria. They brought there their skills in agriculture. The waves of immigrants were not always welcome and were initially mistrusted in many areas. In other areas, they were received with open arms because their presence provided an important opportunity to restore the worn out lands with new workers.

Those who reached Peloponnese and settled in innaccessible mountainous areas, shaped compact teams. Often they had no scruples placing themselves under the sovereignty of a Greek ruler - often the direct descendant of an old Byzantine dynasty. Along with the rest of the Greeks they constituted a strong front of resistance against the Ottomans. With the adoption of a common ethos, the Greek-Albanian unions played an important role in the 1821 Greek War of Independence, as the Arvanites had completely accepted their origin.

The waves of immigrants were id not always peacefully disposed and initially in many areas they were received with mistrust. In other areas they were received with open arms, because their presence was an important opportunity to restore the worn out lands with new workforce. To sum up, Arvanites were an ideal supplier of workforce for Greece; they boosted demographically the local population and contributed considerably in his fight against the Ottoman forces. Greeks and Arvanites, accomplished through expostulations and compromises, to lead to a common life, without degrading the sovereign Greek character, whose assimilating power enabled many Arvanites to reached the top echelons of political and military ranks.

• Parts of this section were translated from the equivalent greek article. The references for the translated section are:
  • Ducellier (1994)
  • Ιστορία των Βαλκανικών Λαών, Παπαδήμας, 1995

Demographics

File:Gkikas cover.jpg

Photograph of an Arvanite.

The regions traditionally inhabited by Arvanites in the south of Greece are found across large parts of Attica, Boeotia, the Peloponnese, the south of the island of Euboea and the north of the island of Andros. Within Attica, the capital Athens and its suburbs were partly Arvanitic until the late 19th century. There are also settlements in Phthiotis, Locris and several islands of the Saronic Gulf including Salamis.

Other groups of Arvanites live in the north of Greece in areas closer to Albania and the historical centers of contiguous Albanian populations (Banfi 1996). Some of them live in Epirus (Thesprotia and Preveza); in Florina/Konitsa (near the border of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia); and in some locations further east in Thrace. These settlements are believed to be of a later date than the southern ones (GHM 1995).

There are no reliable figures about the number of Arvanites in Greece today. The last official census figures available come from 1951. The number of active speakers of the Arvanitic language is believed to be much lower than the number of people who identify culturally as Arvanites owing to family tradition and local loyalties (see "Phara" below), and that number might be lower than the number of people of ultimately Arvanitic descent. The following is a summary of the widely diverging estimates (Botsi 2003: 97):

• 1928 census: 18,773 citizens self-identifying as "Albanophone", i.e. Arvanitic-speaking.
• 1951 census: 22,736 "Albanophones".
• Furikis (1934): estimated 70,000 Arvanites only in Attica.
• Trudgill/Tzavaras (1976/77): estimated 140,000 only in Attica and Boeotia.
• Sasse (1991): estimated 50,000 Arvanitic speakers in total.
• Ethnologue, 2000: 150,000 Arvanites, living in 300 villages.
• Federal Union of European Nationalities, 1991: 95,000 "Albanians of Greece" (MRG 1991: 189)
• According to some estimates: up to 250,000 (quoted in Schukalla 1993: 523) or even over a million (Albanian life No.2, 1994, quoted in Clogg 2002) people of ultimately Arvanitic descent.

Like the rest of the Greek population, Arvanites have been emigrating from their villages to the cities and especially to the capital Athens. This has contributed to the loss of the language in the younger generation.

Names

The name Arvanites and its equivalents are today used both in Greek (Αρβανίτες) and in Arvanitic itself (Arbërorë, spelled Αρbε̰ρόρε̰ in the Greek-based Arvanitic alphabet). In Standard Albanian, the name is Arvanitë. Arvanites are thus distinguished from ethnic Albanians, who are called Shqiptarë in Arvanitic and in Standard Albanian, and Alvaní (Αλβανοί) in Greek. Feminine sing. is Arvanitissa (Αρβανίτισσα) and masculine sing. is Arvanitis. It's interesting to note that Arvanites of Epirus named the north wind Arvanitis.

Arvanites refer to their place of origin as Arvanitia (today southern Albania and NW Greece). Sometimes they apply this term to the whole of Albania and/or Epirus. Arvanitia is also an alternate name for Akronafplia, Nafplion's Acropolis.

The name Arvanites and its Albanian/Arvanitic equivalents go back to an old ethnonym that was formerly used by all Albanians to refer to themselves. Albanians adopted the new name of Shqiptarë and the country name Shqipëria since the 15th century, after the Arvanitic populations had split off. The Arvanites kept the old, common name, as did the Albanophone settlers in Italy (Arbëreshë). The word stems of both Arvanites and Albanians, originally arb- (αρβ-) and alb- (αλβ-) have been attested as designations for people in the area of today's Albania since antiquity. (Polybius: Άρβων, Αρβωνίται; Ptolemy: Αλβανόπολις, Αλβανοί; for more details see: Origins of the name Albania). It is a matter of debate whether the two roots are ultimately cognate, or whether two accidentally similar roots were conflated with each other at a later date (Babiniotis 1998). In Byzantine Greek and in medieval Latin authors, reflexes of both roots are used synonymously for the people of today's Albania. This usage continued in Greek until the 19th and early 20th century, with Αλβανοί ("Albanians") being used in formal registers and Αρβανίτες ("Arvanites") used in the more popular speech, but both used indiscriminately for both Muslim and Christian Albanophones. In the course of the formation of the modern nation-state societies, it became customary to use only "Αλβανοί" for the people of Albania, and only "Αρβανίτες" for the Christian Arvanites integrated into Greek society.

Arvanites are distinguished in Greece from Cham Albanians (Greek: "Τσάμηδες"), another group of Albanophones in the northwest of Greece. Unlike the Christian Arvanites, the Chams were predominantly Muslims and identified nationally as Albanians. Most Muslim Chams were expelled from Greece shortly before the end of the Second World War, after violent clashes and atrocities committed during and after Axis occupation.

There is some disagreement to what extent the term "Arvanites" legitimately also includes the small remaining Christian Albanophone population groups in Northwest Greece (Epirus and western Macedonia). Unlike the southern Arvanites, these speakers are reported to use the name Shqiptarë both for themselves and for Albanian nationals (Banfi 1996), although this is reported not necessarily to imply Albanian national consciousness (Kollias 1983). Moraitis (2002) reports that such speakers also use the name Arvanitis in their Greek, and the Euromosaic (1996) report notes that the designation Chams is today rejected by the group. The word Shqiptár is also used in a few villages of Thrace, where Arvanites migrated from the mountains of Pindos during the 19th century. Botsi (2003: 21) reports that the term "Arvanites" in its narrow sense includes only the populations of the compact Arvanitic settlement areas in southern Greece, according to the self-identification of those groups. The Ethnologue ([5]) identifies the present-day Albanian/Arvanitic dialects of Northwestern Greece (in Epirus and Lechovo) with those of the Chams. They are therefore classified linguistically together with standard Tosk Albanian, as opposed to "Arvanitika Albanian proper" (i.e. southern Greek Arvanitic). Nevertheless it reports that in Greek the Epirus varieties are also often subsumed under "Arvanitika" in a wider sense. It puts the estimated number of Epirus Albanophones at 10,000. "Arvanitic proper" ([6]) is said to include the outlying dialects spoken in Thrace. Other sources (e.g. GHM 1995) subsume the Epirote Albanophones under the term Arvanites, although they note the different linguistic self-designation.

Language use and language perception

Main article: Arvanitic language

The decline of the Arvanitic language has been brought about by several factors. One is the demographic trend of movement towards the cities, breaking up some of the social ties of village communities. It is also reported that many Arvanites in past decades have maintained a stance of social self-deprecation of the traditional community language, encouraging younger generations to switch to the dominant language, Greek, which was associated with social mobility and modernity (Tsitsipis 1981, Botsi 2003). Especially earlier in the 20th century, Greek state institutions are reported to have sometimes followed a policy of actively discouraging and repressing the use of the Arvanitic language, most strongly under the nationalist Metaxas regime of 1936-1940 (GHM 1995; Trudgill/Tzavaras 1977).

While the Arvanitic language was commonly called Albanian in Greece until the 20th century, the wish of Arvanites to express their ethnic identification as Greeks has led to a stance of rejecting the identification of the language with Albanian as well. Breu (1985: 424) and Tsitsipis (1983) reported that many Arvanites had only very imprecise notions about how related or unrelated their language was to Albanian. Today, many Arvanites prefer to regard Arvanitic as different from Albanian. As Arvanitic is almost exclusively a spoken language, Arvanites also have no practical affiliation with the Standard Albanian language used in Albania, as they do not use this form in writing or in media. The question of linguistic closeness or distance between Arvanitic and Albanian has come to the forefront especially since the early 1990s, when a large number of immigrants from Albania began to enter Greece and came into contact with local Arvanitic communities (cf. Botsi 2003, Athanassopoulou 2005).

Since the 1980s, there have been some organized efforts to preserve the cultural heritage of Arvanites. The Arvanitic League of Greece and other organizations have been campaigning for Arvanitic to obtain the status of a "protected" languge and the Rainbow Party includes legal recognition of Arvanitic as a minority language in its manifesto [7].

Minority status rejected

While sociological studies of Arvanite communities (Trudgill/Tzavaras 1977) used to note an identifiable sense of identity among Arvanites, most of them strongly identify nationally as Greeks and today see their Arvanitic identity either as secondary or synonymous for Greek. Also, the Greek population at large identify with the notion of 'Arvanitia' as an inseparable element of its Hellenic nationhood. Arvanites are also reported to be strongly opposed against the idea of obtaining any kind of officially recognized "minority" status. There was a fleeting attempt in the 1990s by the authorities in Tirana to present the issue of Arvanites as proof of an ethnic minority in Greece. The initiative was placed at the feet of (the then) Albanian president Sali Berisha who was experimenting with the policy of a 'greater Albania'; his remarks provoked both a furious and an amused reaction among the Arvanitic community in the Greek mass media.

Jacques Levy (2000) describes Arvanites as "Albanian speakers who were integrated into Greek national identity as early as the first half of the nineteenth century and who in no way consider themselves as an ethnic minority".

Arvanitic culture

Phara

Phara (φάρα) is a descent model, similar to Scottish clans. Arvanites were organised in phares (φάρες) mostly during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. The apex was a warlord and the phara was named after him (i.e. Botsaris' phara). In an Arvanitic village each phara was responsible to keep genealogical records (see also registry offices), that are preserved until today as historical documents in local libraries. Usually there were more than one phares in an Arvanitic village and sometimes they were organised in phratries that had conflict of interests. Those phratries didn't last long, because each leader of a phara desired to be the leader of the phratry and would not be lead by another.

The section about phara is based on Biris (1960) and Kollias (1983).

The position of woman in Arvanitic society

Arvanitissa is an Arvanite woman. There's also a church in Chios that is dedicated to "Panagia Arvanitissa". Kollias (1983) compares the position of woman in Arvanitic society with the position of a Spartan woman in Ancient Sparta. Centuries before women's suffrage, an Arvanitissa not only had the right to express her opinion about issues that concerned her phara, but also bear arms. If her husband died, then she acquired all the rights and the priviledges that he used to have in the phara - such an example was Bouboulina.

Trivia

Ouzo bottle from the town of Plomari in Lesvos.

• Ouzo Plomari, Isidoros Arvanitis, is a brand of Ouzo (Ούζο Πλωμαρίου, Ισιδώρου Αρβανίτου, 1894).

Arvanitic songs

Although they are almost fully assimilated into Greek society, some distinct Arvanitic cultural characteristics are still identifiable.

There are 4 music CDs featuring Arvanitic songs although the lyrics are often in Greek. There are no mass media in Arvanitic, although some local radio stations have occasionally broadcast Arvanitic songs. During the last decades there have been made some attempts to document Arvanitic songs, the most recent by Thanasis Moraitis.

Arvanitic songs share similarities with Arbëresh, Albanian and Greek Epirote music.

Studies and books about the Arvanites

Kostas Biris

Biris was a folklorist and an architect. His book "Arvanites, the Dorians of modern Hellenism, history of Arvanites Greeks" (1960) is a thorough study on Arvanites and it is the most referenced work by other scholars who studied Arvanites.

Maria Michael-Dede

File:Dede cover.jpg

Arvanitissa with a traditional dress.

Maria Michael-Dede is an author of literature and an ethnologist. She has written two books about Arvanitic songs (1978) and the book The Greek Arvanites (1997).

Aristeides Kollias

Kollias, a lawyer by profession, performed ethnologist studies on Arvanites. In his book "Arvanites and the origin of the Greeks" (1983), Kollias promotes the Pelasgian theory that identifies the Pelasgians with the Arvanites. Kollias states that Greek people and Albanian people were closer in the past than they are during the last two centuries and that they both descend from the Pelasgians. His rejection of the Indo-European theory and his theory that Arvanitika is very close (if not identical) to the Homeric Greek have been criticized, however his work on Arvanitic culture is generally accepted.

Thanasis Moraitis

Moraitis had worked with Kollias for some time, and he did an extensive search on Arvanitic music. In his book "Arvanitika Songs", he documents about 150 songs, analyzes their musical structure, and also has texts by linguists and historians about Arvanitic history, culture and the Arvanitic language.

Famous Arvanites

File:Kollias cover.jpg

Kollias' book, "Arvanites and the Origin of the Greeks" (1983).

• Greek War of Independence
  • Andreas Miaoulis, admiral and later politician
  • Markos Botsaris, leader of Souliotes, defender of Messolonghi
  • Laskarina Bouboulina, the only female member of Filiki Etaireia
  • Nikolaos Krieziotis, leader of the Greek Revolution in Euboea
  • Georgios Kountouriotis, leader of Hydra, admiral and briefly prime minister
  • Xadziyiannis Mexis, leader of Spetses

• Presidents of Greece
  • Pavlos Kountouriotis, admiral and later politician
  • Theodoros Pangalos, general and briefly military dictator

• Prime Ministers of Greece
  • Kitsos Tzavelas
  • Georgios Kountouriotis, leader of Hydra
  • Antonios Kriezis, served in Greek navy during the revolution, later politician
  • Dimitrios Voulgaris
  • Athanasios Miaoulis
  • Diomidis Kiriakos
  • Theodoros Pangalos, general and briefly military dictator
  • Alexandros Korizis
  • Petros Voulgaris
  • Alexandros Diomidis

• Greek politicians
  • Theodoros Pangalos, former minister of Foreign Affairs, member of PASOK

• Artists
  • Nikos Engonopoulos, painter and poet

See also

• Arvanitic language
  • Arvanitic alphabet
• Balkan peninsula
  • Greece
  • Albania

References

Bibliography

• Athanassopoulou, Angélique (2005), "'Nos Albanais à nous': Travailleurs émigrés dans une communauté arvanite du Péloponnèse" ["'Our own Albanians': Migrant workers in a Peloponnese Arvanitic community"]. Revue Ethnologie Française 2005/2. Online abstract
• Babiniotis, Georgios (1998), Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας ["Dictionary of Modern Greek"]. Athens: Kentro Lexikologias.
• Banfi, Emanuele (1996), "Minoranze linguistiche in Grecia: Problemi storico- e sociolinguistici" ["Linguistic minorities in Greece: Historical and sociolinguistic problems"]. In: C. Vallini (ed.), Minoranze e lingue minoritarie: Convegno internazionale. Naples: Universtario Orientale. 89-115.
• Biris, Kostas (1960): Αρβανίτες, οι Δωριείς του νεότερου Ελληνισμού: H ιστορία των Ελλήνων Αρβανιτών. ["Arvanites, the Dorians of modern Greece: History of the Greek Arvanites"]. Athens. (3rd ed. 1998: ISBN 9602040319 )
• Botsi, Eleni (2003): Die sprachliche Selbst- und Fremdkonstruktion am Beispiel eines arvanitischen Dorfes Griechenlands: Eine soziolinguistische Studie. ("Linguistic construction of the self and the other in an Arvanitic village in Greece: A sociolinguistic study"). PhD dissertation, University of Konstanz, Germany. Online text
• Breu, Walter (1990): "Sprachliche Minderheiten in Italien und Griechenland" ["Linguistic minorities in Italy and Greece"]. In: B. Spillner (ed.), Interkulturelle Kommunikation. Frankfurt: Lang. 169-170.
• Clogg, Richard (2002): Minorities in Greece: Aspect of a Plural Society. Oxford: Hurst.
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• Ducellier, Alain (1994): Οι Αλβανοί στην Ελλάδα (13-15 αι.): Η μετανάστευση μίας κοινότητας. ["The Albanians in Greece (13th-15th cent.): A community's migration"]. Athens: Idhrima Gulandri Horn.
• Euromosaic (1996): "L'arvanite / albanais en Grèce". Report published by the Institut de Sociolingüística Catalana. Online version
• Furikis, Petros (1931): "Πόθεν το εθνικόν Αρβανίτης;" ["Whence the ethnonym Arvanites?"] Αθήνα 43: 3-37.
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• GHM (=Greek Helsinki Monitor) (1995): "Report: The Arvanites". Online report
• Haebler, Claus (1965): Grammatik der albanischen Mundarten von Salamis ["The grammar of the Albanian dialects of Salamis"]. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz.
• Jochalas, Titos P. (1971): Über die Einwanderung der Albaner in Griechenland: Eine zusammenfassene Betrachtung ["On the immigration of Albanians to Greece: A summary"]. München: Trofenik.
• Kollias, Aristidis (1983): Αρβανίτες και η καταγωγή των Ελλήνων. ["Arvanites and the descent of the Greeks"]. Athens.
• Levy, Jacques (2000): From Geopolitics to Global Politics: A French Connection (ISBN 0714651079)
• Moraitis, Thanassis (2002): Anthology of Arvanitika songs of Greece. Athens. (ISBN 9608597676)
• MRG (=Minority Rights Group) (1991): Greece and its minorities. London: Minority Rights Publications.
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• Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1991): Arvanitika: Die albanischen Sprachreste in Griechenland ["Arvanitic: The Albanian language relics in Greece"]. Wiesbaden.
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• Trudgill, Peter (1976/77): "Creolization in reverse: Reduction and simplification in the Albanian dialects of Greece." Transactions of the Philological Society (Vol?), 32-50.
• Trudgill, Peter (1986): Dialects in contact. Oxford: Blackwell.
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• Tsigos, Athanasios (1991): Κείμενα για τους Αρβανίτες. ["Texts about Arvanites"]. Athens.
• Tsitsipis, Lukas (1981): Language change and language death in Albanian speech communities in Greece: A sociolinguistic study. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
• Tsitsipis, Lukas (1983): "Language shift among the Albanian speakers of Greece." Anthropological Linguisitcs 25(3): 288-308.
• Tsitsipis, Lukas (1995): "The coding of linguistic ideology in Arvanitika (Albanian): Language shift, congruent and contradictory discourse." Anthropological Linguistics 37: 541-577.
• Tsitsipis, Lukas (1998): Αρβανίτικα και Ελληνικά: Ζητήματα πολυγλωσσικών και πολυπολιτισμικών κοινοτήτων. ["Arvanitic and Greek: Issues of multilingual and multicultural communities"]. Vol. 1. Livadeia.
• Vranousi, E. (1970): "Οι όροι 'Αλβανοί' και 'Αρβανίται' και η πρώτη μνεία του ομωνύμου λαού εις τας πηγάς του ΙΑ' αιώνος." ["The terms 'Albanoi' and 'Arbanitai' and the earliest references to the people of that name in the sources of the 11th century"]. Σuμμεικτα 2: 207-254.

External links

• Template:El icon Arvanitic League of Greece
• Template:En icon 'The Arvanitika story' by Diana Farr Louis (from 'Athens News')