Highcastle Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Principality of Autonomous Aromanian Macedonia

Population

1,000,000 (Bulgarians, Aromanians, Italians, Greeks, Albanians, Romanians, Turks)

Capital

Krusevo/Crushuva

Head of State

Prince Alcibiade I Diamandi di Samarina (from 1941)

Ruling Party

Legio V Macedonica (co-sponsored by the Romanian Miscarea Nationala Fascista and the Italian Partito Nazionale Fascista)

Head of Government

Nicola Matushi (from 1941)

History[]

Carved out of territory in southern Yugoslavia not claimed by Albania, Bulgaria or Greece, the Principality was created as an autonomous homeland for the Aromanian peoples of the southern Balkans under Italian and Romanian protection.

Italy's Fascist government had sponsored separatist movements amongst the Latin peoples of Greece and Yugoslavia in order to destabilise both countries. After Greece was brought into an alliance with Italy, Yugoslavia became the focus of Italian efforts. A small piece of territory with a large Aromanian minority was carved out of Yugoslav territory conquered by Italian and Albanian forces.

The new statelet was centred on the towns of Krusevo/Crushuva (long the unofficial Aromanian capital in Macedonia and site of the 1903 Krusevo Republic), Bitola/Bitolia (the largest city), Ohrid/Ocrida, Resen, Struga and Demir Hisar.

Local control of the region was handed to the Aromanian-nationalist Legion movement of Alcibiade Diamani di Samarina and Nicola Matushi, with Diamandi being ennobled as Prince and Grand Voivode of Macedonia. The new statelet also enjoyed the support of some of the many IMRO factions, though not the main faction under Mihailov.

The population of the small Principality is extremely mixed, with Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians and Turks, as well as the native Aromanian population and settler populations of Italian, Romanians and Aromanians (including the Meglenoromanians) from other parts of Yugoslavia and Greece. Despite this, Macedonia is officially an 'Aromanian state', and only Latin languages (Aromanian, Italian and Romanian) have official status.

As relations between Italy and Romania cooled in the 1950's, the continued future of the Principality as a condominion of the two powers began to appear doubtful.  

Advertisement