Principate of Pindus, Vlach "Roman Legion "

[akritas]

Purpose of this thread is to gather any information regarding the actions of the known as "Principate of Pindus" Italian fashists moovement. Nazi occupation in Greece as - elsewhere in Europe - led to a complete breakdown of state and society. During the war, the Axis powers had attempted to stir up ethnic discord in Greece, but with relatively little success.

Italians had tried to promote a Vlach "Roman Legion" in Central and North Greece
Bulgarians had encouraged Macedonian autonomists the known Ochranain the Kastoria area.
Italians and Germans in Epiros, in northwestern Greece, both had tried to build up a 5th column among the Muslim Albanians (Chams) around Filiates.

Wartime Italian propaganda had, for its part, talked freely of a Koutsovlach minority and the need to create an auton omous Koutsovlach state. This particular form of propaganda had been stronger in Thessaly, where the notorious Alkibiades Diamandis was active, but it also affected Macedonia after it gained supporters in theprefecture of Grevena. Diamandis, a pro-Italian lawyer from Samarina, had rallied local leaders in 1942 and, in collaboration with the Italians, established a 5th column known as the Roman Legion. His ultimate aim had been to create a so-called Principate of the Pindus.lu On hearing Diamandis's manifesto, and indeed, motivated by the prospect of immediate material gain, a small number of the Vlach-speakers in Grevena had been moved to follow him and declare fealty to the Italian occupiers.

Linguistic affinity, real grievances and opportunism made a nunlber of the northern Pindus Vlachs 5usceptible to Italian propaganda for the establishment of an autonornous Vlach principality under Italian rule.

Greece has died and the Ronian Empire is born,' declared the pro-Italian Vlachs of Grevena where they welcomed the Italian troops in April 1941. The prospect of autonomy, but even more the expectation of satisfying more inmiediate needs, made many Vlachs of the region offer to collaborate with the Italian authorities.

However, the vast majority of the Vlachs had remained loyal to Greece, despite the legionaries' pressure, and this prevented the issue from assuming greater proportions in Macedonia.

Evangelos Averov (one-tlme Greek Forclgll Minister), himself a Vlach and a student of the Vlach question, maintained that the reason for the negligible response of the Pindus Vlachs in Metsovo to the calls of Italian propagandists for the establtshment of an independent Vlach principality under Italian protection was their long identfication with the modern Greek national state. Averov was active during the occupation of the region by the Italians in trying to keep prominent Vlach families from associating with the Italian authorities. As a result, hc was deported to Italy, where he was kept hostage till the liberation.

sources
1-When the war is over, Mark Mazower
2-Plundered Loyalities, Ioannis Kolliopoulos, Vol A & B, 1994

[akritas]

The 1st prince of this “Principality” was the Aromanian Alchiviad Diamandi di Samarina, who established his court. He left the state in 1942, and took refuge in Romania, and his successor for a very short time was Nicholas Matoussi, before the title was offered to the Milvanyi family in recognition for their role in supplying the Italian Army with cereals.

Gyula von Milványi-Csesznegi was a Hungarian-Croatian baron of Pecheneg origin and he was convinced that the Vlachs of the Moglena valley were descendants of medieval Pecheneg tribes.

He reigned as Prince Julius between August-September in 1943, did not hold any real power, and his brother Michael never set foot on the territory of the state. Nevertheless, some Aromanian and Slav Macedonian leaders governed in their names.

In 1944 the Nazi German authorities recognized M. Hatzi as leader of their Aromanian supporters.

In 1942 a faction of Bulgarian (VMRO) offered the “Royal” throne of Macedonia to Alkiviadis, but there is no evidence whether he accepted it. Alchibiades was a patron of the arts and an amateur sculptor himself

Source
1-Zambounis, Michael - Kings and Princes of Greece, Athens 2001
2-Papakonstantinou Michael: Το Χρονικό της μεγάλης νύχτας
3-Divani Lena: Το θνησιγενές πριγκιπάτο της Πίνδου. Γιατί δεν ανταποκρίθηκαν οι Κουτσόβλαχοι της Ελλάδας, στην Ιταλο-ρουμανική προπαγάνδα.

[Truth Bearer]

Akritas the question I must ask you is how did Averoff(v) aquire a Slavic surname???
I know he's a Northern Epirean of Vlach descent but the surname has confused me.....

[akritas]

Originally Posted by Truth Bearer

Akritas the question I must ask you is how did Averoff(v) aquire a Slavic surname???
I know he's a Northern Epirean of Vlach descent but the surname has confused me.....

I dont know TB the story of the Averoff surname.

[kostas68]

Originally Posted by Truth Bearer

Akritas the question I must ask you is how did Averoff(v) aquire a Slavic surname???
I know he's a Northern Epirean of Vlach descent but the surname has confused me.....

Probably an ancestor of him was trading in Russia as many other Greeks at this time(espacially Epirotans).It was very common to the Greek traders who were residing in Russia to <russianize> their surnames adding the surfix -ov.Remember Athanasios Tsakalof of Filiki Etaireia,he was from Yiannena.When he settled in Odessa he changed his real surname(i can't remember it)to Tsakalov,which derives from his grandfather's nickname Tsakalos.
By the way,i think Averof wasn't from Northern Epirus,he was from Metsovo,prefecture of Yiannena.