Vlachs of Serbia

The Vlachs form a scoring according to the census of 2002, about 40,000 members of a national minority in Serbia. Their settlement area, the ostserbische mountainous region between the rivers Danube, Morava and Timok, one of the Serbian districts Braničevo, boron, Zaječar and Pomoravlje.

The Vlachs of Serbia are ethnic Romanians and be counted as a national minority in Vojvodina -based addition to the Romanian minority since 2007. Unlike the case of the Romanians from the autonomous province of Vojvodina, where Romanian is a regional official language, the rights of the Vlachs from Central Serbia are significantly limited. The Vlachs are Orthodox Christians.

Language and Folklore

The Vlachs in eastern Serbia speak the dialect Oltenesc which adjoins the southern Romanian group, and Bănăţean that belongs to the northern Romanian group. In the 20th century many Serbian words are entered, especially those of the modern lifestyle characteristic (eg technical ). From the Romanian language, these terms could not be borrowed because of the lack of Romanian school curriculum. In the Romanian-speaking population of Vojvodina is the influence of the Serbian language, due to the local Romanian school education significantly lower.

The folklore is characterized Romanian. In the villages themselves have received traditions that are usually found only in the southwestern Romania. The folk costumes of the men are similar to those from Wallachia. Their " hat ", which is also spread throughout Wallachia, was already worn by the northern Thracians ( Dacians ) and is also depicted on Trajan's Column in Rome. The costumes of the women, however, show parallels to the Romanian Banat.

Explanation of terms

The word Wallachia to describe an ethnic group is widespread in Southeast Europe. So mostly the balkan Roman population is meant. Even in the former Yugoslavia, the term appears Vlachs ( Vlasi ), namely as a term for a nationality. In the censuses of the SFR Yugoslavia was both the Aromanian, as also summarized the meglenorumänisch speaking population of the Republic of Macedonia, the istrorumänische speaking population of the Republic of Croatia and the Romanian-speaking population in the east of central Serbia as Vlachs. In the native language Romanian proper name they call themselves Ruman (plural: Rumani ), in the Serbian language they refer to themselves as Blaise (plural: Vlasi ). In the Serbian census, which took place before the First World War, all Vlachs are counted as " Romanians ".

See also Main article Vlachs

History

The origin of the Vlachs in eastern Serbia is disputed. While the Serbian side, they often referred to as immigrants from neighboring Wallachia, they form the Romanesque rest of the population of the Roman period for the Romanian side. In the late Roman empire namely the present-day eastern Serbia formed part of the great provinces of Dacia and Moesia Ripensis. Before the Ottoman conquest, the area was mostly the Bulgarian Empire. Even with the greatest extent of the Serbian Empire around 1355 only the western part of present-day Wallachian settlement area was incorporated (up to the mountain ridges of the Serbian Ore Mountains ). At the same time it was never part of the lying on the other side of the Danube Principality of Wallachia. At the beginning of the 19th century, the area was part of the nucleus of the new Serbian state. At the foundation of the Serbian principality in 1817 was one of the western part of the Ore Mountains to Serbian Serbia. Only after the peace of Adrian Opel from 1829 and the subsequent agreement of 10 June 1833 the status of Serbia towards the gate of the eastern border of Serbia was established on the river Timok. Since then, the Vlachs citizens of Serbia and Yugoslavia. As a result of the Treaty of Neuilly (1919) was awarded the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes also a small strip of land between the river Timok and the Balkan Mountains, is also spoken in the romanian. The number and proportion of the Wallachian population in eastern Serbia was under the Yugoslav census of 1921 ( *):

• In the region Timok Krajina: District Ključ: 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%)

• Mlava: 11,983 (26%)
• Morava: 5,085 (17%)
• Zvižd: 11,356 (57.6 %)
• Homolje: 11,622 (56.6% )

• Resava: 2,380 (8.3%)
• Despotovac: 1,836 (8.7%)
• Belica: 739 ( 1.8%)
• Paracin: 599 (1.4%)
• Temnić: 295 (1.3%)

(*) It should be noted that the coverage of the former administrative units do not always corresponds to the current. Only the units with a Wallachian population of at least 1% are mentioned.

Population and minority rights

In the 2002 census, in the strict Serbia and Vojvodina to 40.054 persons designated as Vlachs, 39 953 of them residing in the narrower Serbia. The district with the largest Wallachian population is 11.22% of the district boron ( Braničevo 7.02%, 5.20% Zaječar, Pomoravlje 0.90% ). In any large community, the Vlachs achieve a relative or absolute majority. About the biggest Wallachian population shares the large municipalities have Opština Boljevac ( Zaječar District ) with 26.26 % and Kučevo ( Braničevo District ) with 27.67 %. However, the large municipality with the highest number of Vlachs is boron with 10,064 ( 18.03% ).

How much what these numbers is quite uncertain. It is expected that hundreds of thousands of Romanian-speaking people in eastern Serbia ( 159 510 " Romanians " ( rumuni ) were seen in the Serbian census of 1895 in eastern Serbia listed in the Yugoslav census 1921 142 773 Romanians / Tzintzars, in the census of 1953 only 36 728 " Vlachs " ( Vlasi ), but more 198 728 " Serbs with Wallachian mother tongue "). Ethnic maps from the period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia still have large areas in eastern Serbia as Wallachian majority of areas. After the Second World War, but the number of Vlachs declined sharply. In the census of 1981 1991 designated in Serbia only 25,596, only 17 807 people as Vlachs. The more surprising result of the current census 40.054 Vlachs in Serbia appears. Also in eastern Serbia have 4,157 people their ethnic origin indicated as " Romanian" ( Serbian: rumuni ) - 1991 there were only 42 people. This fact, in recent years more and louder demands for similar rights as the Romanians from Vojvodina ( native-language education and services in the Romanian language ), suggests a growing Romanian national consciousness among them. Nevertheless, many Vlachs have a Serbian national consciousness and still declare themselves in the censuses as " Serbs " (even if the number of such decreases apparently) This is a result of the initiated since the beginning of the 19th century Serbisierungspolitik. Never been rumänischsprachiger the Romanian-speaking minority offered lessons, Orthodox services were to be held only in Serbian newborns were baptized only with the Serbian name and the Romanian family names were serbisiert by the ending- ić or ovic been added -. , for example, the Romanian Iepure (Romanian hare ) was Iepurović, Romanian Craciun (Romanian Christmas) was Cračiunović, Romanian Paun (Romanian Pfaun ) was Paunovic, etc. In 1948, the local Romanian language journals "Our language ") and " Lucrul were " Vorba noastra " (Romanian nostru " (Romanian: " Our work " ), and the Romanian-speaking stations of Radio Zăiceari prohibited in response to the poor treatment of the Serb minority in the then Stalinist Romania ( deportation to the Bărăgan - steppe ).

The Romanian-speaking minority in Vojvodina can, however, do not complain about the lack of minority rights, as Yugoslavia had committed with the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 to ensure the rights of minorities living here. These rights were always respected. While in Vrsac (Vojvodina ) a Romanian consulate already exists, the Romanian and Serbian authorities are negotiating the establishment of a second consulate of the neighboring state in Bor

Policy

The Romanian policy on Europe 2012 has made ​​the approval of a EU candidate status of Serbia from entering Serbia on Romanian demands for recognition of the Vlachs as a Romanian minority.

2002 Census

This following table down to the proportion of Wallachian population in the relevant Serbian districts. The data are based on the census of 2002.