Some interesting reading material:
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'The Arvanites and Alvanoi are two Albanian speaking minorities in Greece, different in their history and their traditions, including musical ones.'
(Ardian Ahmedaja, Manifold Identities Ch.5, p54)
'Arvanites is the name of the medieval Albanians in Byzantine documents. The beginnings of the immigration in Greece seem to have taken place during the second half of the 13th century.()There were several different reasons for immigration, caused especially by constant conflicts in the region. If often happened that the Arvanites were granted residence on undeveloped and depopulated areas. Byzantine sources report for example that 10,000 of them settled with their families in such areas of the Peloponnesus during the power of Theodoros I. Palaiologos (1380-1407) with his approval. The Venetians followed suit by supporting immigration to their Peloponnesian possessions Methone and Corone.'
(Ardian Ahmedaja, Manifold Identities Ch.5, p54)
'In addition, medieval Albanians enjoyed a good reputation as warriors and particularly as riders. In 1382, Pedro, the King of Aragorn [Catalonia] tried to lure Albanians and Greeks to settle in severely depopulated areas of Attica through tax concessions and hoped the Albanian settlers would provide increased military support. The Venetians on neighboring Evia soon followed the Catalans example by implementing their own immigration policy.'
(Ardian Ahmedaja, Manifold Identities Ch.5, p54)
'One of the later waves of immigration was the militarily motivated settlement of 10-15,000 Albanian Moslems from Epirus in the Western Peloponnesus by the Ottomans in the year 1768.'
(Ardian Ahmedaja, Manifold Identities Ch.5, p55)
'The Arvanites of Southern and Central Greece are frequently mentioned in the Greek travel literature of the 18th and 19th century. It seems that until then they have managed to maintain their language and culture very well. After the independence of Greece in 1830, a strong assimilation process began that was promoted by the common orthodox religion. () Nevertheless, some of the descendants of Arvanites still speak their ancestors language at home and in the village. Most of them nowadays live in Attica, Thiva, Evia and Peloponnesus and distinguish themselves as Arvanite and the language as Arvanitika. In some villages they even distinguish themselves as Arbereshe and the language as arberisht, which are the medieval names of the Albanians and their language.'
(Ardian Ahmedaja, Manifold Identities Ch.5, p55)
'Another small group lives in villages of the Greek-Bulgarian-Turkish border area in Thracia. Their ancestors seem to have been settled there from the 16th century onwards. About their traditions, and in particular about their folk music, practically no information exists.'
'Alvanoi (sometimes Arvanoi) is the Greek term for modern Albanians. A number of them live in Northwest Greece, mostly in Cameri, a region that was divided between Albania and Greece after the decisions of the London Ambassadors Conference 1913.'
(Ardian Ahmedaja, Manifold Identities Ch.5, p58-9)
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'In general, the cultural relationship between Arvanites and immigrant Albanians is highly controversial in Arvanati villages ()While some applauded the efforts of their urban kin, others were ideologically opposed to the proposition that local Arvanites and Albanians shared a common ethnicity. The president of the village cultural society was vehement: There is no relationship between us and the Albanians. We are the original Greeks. We are more Greek than the Greeks! Our ancestors have been here for thousands of years, back to ancient Greece and the Mycenaeans. For the most part, the attempt to promote multicultural understanding was met with derision and even hostility on the part of the villagers.'
(Christopher M. Lawrence, Blood and Oranges, p84)
'The debate over Arvaniti identity is a common preoccupation in the upper villages of Midea township. Villagers strongly identity as Arvanites and often discuss the distinctive features of Arvanite culture (koultoura) and their differences from the Greeks of the valley. In comparison to the valley Greeks, Arvanites are considered to be more clever and sly (poniri) as well as more militant and resistant to authority. At the same time, Arvanites consider themselves to be more truly Greek than the Greeks. They claim to have provided the impetus for the Revolution and to continue to hold more closely to tradition, while the valley villagers are constantly adapting to foreign rule, corrupting their culture.'
(Christopher M. Lawrence, Blood and Oranges, p84)
