

Balkan Background by Bernard Newman
Moderator: Hymniarber
http://books.google.com/books?id=PMwpWV ... th&f=falseThey hold the Isthmus of Corinth, and the country for a considerable distance on either side of it, thus expelling the Hellenic blood both from the Argolis of the Homeric age, and from the Attica of the historical age. Thus, Attica, Boeotia, the southern part of Euboea, Corinth, Megaris, Argolis, and Sicyonia, are entirely inhabited by a people of Albanian origin, and who still preserve the vital traditions of that origin by wearing an Albanian dress and speaking the Albanian language. To a great extent, at least, these distinctions of origin survive: in rural districts they do so almost without exception; but in the immediate neighborhood of the towns the Greek language has frequently triumphed. The cities themselves in these districts of modern Greece, are to some extent exceptions. In Athens itself, for example, there are no doubt more Greeks than Albanians; but, on the other hand, the whole of Attica will hardly furnish a single Hellenic peasant.
http://books.google.com/books?id=c7INAA ... &q&f=falseThebes was preparing, while we were there, for the exhibition of a tragedy less atrocious. The inhabitants having privately accused the governor of oppressing them, by extortions, beyond endurance, the sultan had appointed the governor of Athens to investigate the charge. A few days before our arrival, a proclamation had been made, throughout the district, that all who had matter of complaint should come and state their grievances; and the government house, when we paid our visit, was thronged with peasants, pressing to give vent to their indignation. This proceeding serves to shew, that the Greeks, if they set properly about the representation of complaints, are not so destitute of protection as they are generally supposed to be. The circumspection and steadiness, with which the examination was conducted, afforded a favourable specimen of Turkish judicature.
The territory of Thebes is fertile, and the grain harvest affords a considerable surplus for exportation. Two or three small cargoes of rosin are also shipped; and, annually, several larger vessels are loaded with timber, at Negropont and Megara, the two ports where the productions of Boeotia are embarked.
It would be-unpardonable to omit mentioning, that Thebes posthe distinguished wonder of a public clock. It was brought, about fifty years ago, from Venice to Negropont, where an opulent Theban Turk, happening to hear it strike, was so pleased with its sagacity, that he bought it, and built a tower for it here. As in the epochs of antiquity, public works are executed, in Greece, at the expence of individuals.
In this town, we observed a small manufactory of buttons and military instruments. The inhabitants wear the Albanian dress more commonly than in Attica.
The Albanian have ousted the Greeks from the most celebrated states in all periods of antiquity
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The modern Greeks may in a measure be regarded as descendants of the ancient Hellenes, though they have also foreign blood (Slavonic and Illyrian) in their veins. The population also includes about 100,000 Albanians, a few thousand Turks, besides Armenians and Franks. Nearly the whole population belongs to the Greek Church.
Commercial Geography of the World By Carl Zehden
Southern Albania is deeply indented by a Greek population ; Greek, at least, in creed and language, if not in blood. But the fate of Southern Albania will be determined, at its proper time, by the will of the Albanians themselves. They are possibly more for Greece than for the Porte: but they are far from being half so Greek-minded as the Greeks make them. In other words, there is much onesided reciprocity on this question. Still, that there is some Hellenic feeling is beyond doubt.
Thessaly, more Greek than Turk; is by no means wholly so. In the year '21 it rebelled and was subdued. In '56 it sympathized and moved. Yet in reality, however, Thessaly is a geographical expression. In the South it is Greek: but along the range of Mount Pelion, on the one side, and on Pindus, on the other, it is neither Greek nor Turk. It is Wallachian. Of the Wallachian element in Thessaly, philellenes say but little. Still it is an important one: more Greek, however, than Turk. In Northern Thessaly, however, the Turks are numerous. Salonika is the most Mahometan city south of Constantinople, and Larissa the most Mahometan city south of Salonika. And then there are Koniarids, the least arrogant and the most inoffensive of all the Turks. They are Turks but not Ottomans. They are colonists, of more than four hundred years' standing, from Asia Minor, representatives of the old Seldzh Turks of Iconium, who look upon the Ottomans as parvenuus, and who are, by no means, to be unconditionally handed over to the Greeks.
That Thessaly is more Greek than Turk is probable. That it is more Christian than Mahometan is certain. But the Greek who calls Larissa Greek as Athens or the Argos is merely throwing dust in philellenic eyes.
From their own showing the ex-king is, to some extent, a scape-goat. It is not pretended that he was cruel. More than once he might have shed the blood of his subjects with a fair chance of successful resistance. Nor can he be charged with the want of personal courage in not having done so. That he is no fire-eater is true. But he has never been charged with want of personal courage. When he declined to shed the blood of his subjects he may be fairly credited with having followed his own humane instincts. The charge against him is favouritism. With this he began his reign, with this he ended it. Another charge is profusion in the way of expenditure. Yet he found willing ministers. Indeed, this is the matter in which the Greeks share the blame. He governed or misgoverned by means of corruption. But for nearly twenty years, with the
exception of the Minister at War, all the higher ministers had been Greek. There was corruption no doubt. The bribes were, no doubt, paid out of the taxes. But neither taxation as a means of corruption, nor extravagance, can exist without willing ministers. If there was an unprincipled king, there were ministers to match; and those ministers were Greeks. Corrumpere et corrumpi seculum vacant.
In fact, however, the institutions tempt a sovereign in this direction. The spirit of faction, the tendency to job, are peculiar to no soil, to no clime, to no race. Greece, however, stands alone in the viciousness of her municipal organization. The municipal prefects or mayors are, one and all, nominees of the Crown, and, with a constituency like the Greek, where the urban influence is inordinately powerful as compared with that of the rural districts, the patronage thus implied is sufficient to sap the public virtue of loftier puritans than any Greek has ever professed to be.
The rural population, indeed, strange as it may sound in the ears of the scholar and the philellene, is scarcely Greek. It is Christian. It is orthodox, after the standard of the Greek Church. But it is what the contemporaries of Pericles would have called barbarous; barbarous and Illyrian. The cultivators in Attica and Boeotia are the representatives, not of the old charcoal-burners of Acharnas, or the swineherds of Megara, but of what Thucydides would have called rude Taulantii and Epirots of the parts opposite Corcyra. They are Albanians, not merely in blood, but in language, in nationality, and in the ramifications of the tribes and septs, but, above all, in ignorance and carelessness about politics. Greek is the language of the Piraeus and Athens, only as English is the language of Swansea. But just as Welsh is the language of Glamorganshire at large, so is Albanian that of Attica, Bceotia, and parts of Phocis. It is less uniformly diffused over the Morea; yet, even there, the mountain districts of Elis, of Arcadia, and of the parts between Argos and Cape Tasnarus are Albanian. And for the true productive labours these Albanians are the bone and sinew of the country. The Greeks are merchants, carriers, vendors — vendors, carriers, merchants, men of credit and ledgers—but they are not in many districts the diggers and delvers, the sowers and reapers. A hardier, more frugal, and a more incurious population does all this.
Church and State Review
http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA16&d ... utput=text
History of the Greek Revolution: in two volumes, Volume 1 By Thomas GordonAttica, Argolis, Boeotia, Phocis, and the isles of Hydra, Spezzia, Salamis, and Andros, are inhabited by Albanians. They likewise possess several villages in Arcadia, Achaia, and Messenia. In the rest of Peloponnesus, all the other islands, Etolia, Acarnania, a great part of Thessaly, and Lower Macedonia, the population is exclusively Greek. Some late authors have run into a grievous mistake, in supposing that the Albanian colonies had forgotten their native tongue, and that they could in the Morea discover traces of Sclavonians: the blue eyes, fair complexion, and sandy hair they refer to, are essentially Albanian. Among themselves those people always converse in their own language; many of them do not understand Greek, and they pronounce it with a strong accent.