Principality of Pindus and Moglena

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

The Principality of Pindus and Moglena (also Pindo or Pindos; Meglen or Karacova; Aromanian: Principatu di la Pind) was an autonomous state set up under fascist Italian and Bulgarian control in northwest Greece and southern Yugoslavia during World War II; the Pindus region also spans southern parts of present-day Albania and the Republic of Macedonia. The small state was proclaimed during the Italian occupation of northern Greece in the summer of 1941 as the fatherland of ethnic Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians, and was called Principato del Pindo by the Italians. The capital of the statelet was Metsovo (Aminciu in Aromanian), but the national assembly sat in Trikala.

Contents

[edit] History

The first prince was the Aromanian head of a separatist organisation known as the Roman Legion: Alkiviadis Diamandi di Samarina, who established his court. In 1942 a faction of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) offered the 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 (Zambounis, 2001, see References). 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 Milványi family in recognition for their role in supplying the Italian Army with cereals. Gyula Milványi de Cseszneg 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 Macedonian leaders governed in their names. In 1944 the Nazi German authorities recognized M. Hatzi as leader of their Aromanian supporters.

Due to the chaotic political and military situation the succession rules were not set. Nevertheless, it seems that the Principality was an elective and not a hereditary monarchy.

The state adopted certain anti-Greek policies but never was anti-semitic. Jews from Kastoria, Veria, and Ioannina were in top positions in the hierarchy of the Principality.

[edit] Rulers

[edit] Arms of HH the Prince Alchibiades

See Heraldry

Quarterly, I three moutons passant, Or; II a chèvre salient, gules; III Azure, a river in fess Gules bordered Argent; IV a loup guardant, vert; overall an escutcheon barry of eight Gules and Argent impaling Gules.

[edit] Orders and decorations

  • Princely Eagle Order
  • Julian Order

[edit] Nobility

The system of nobility is not known. A couple of titles of count and baron were granted by both Prince Alchibiades and Prince Julius.

[edit] References

  • Andreanu, José - Los secretos del Balkan
  • Iatropoulos, Dimitri - Balkan Heraldry
  • Toso, Fiorenzo - Frammenti d'Europa
  • Zambounis, Michael - Kings and Princes of Greece, Athens 2001

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/r/i/Principality_of_Pindus_and_Moglena_2aa6.html"