Dimitri Atanasescu Hagi Sterjio ( ro, Dimitrie Atanasescu Hagi Steriu; 16 May 1836 – 1907) was an Aromanian

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and later

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known for having been the teacher of the first Romanian school in the Balkans for the Aromanians, located at Trnovo ( or ), the place where he was born, which was then part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

Biography

In 1859, the principalities of

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centra ...

and

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...

united and formed modern

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

. This represented one of the first steps of the accomplishment of the Romanian national idea, which allowed Romanian intellectuals to shift their focus to other perceived issues. One of these was the

Aromanians The Aromanians ( rup, Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and c ...

, then viewed in Romania as "Romanians of the Balkans". Mobilization was called upon the Aromanians then residing in the new country and an Aromanian committee was established in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...

thanks to the efforts of Dimitrie Cozacovici, an important figure of the early Aromanian national movement. This committee would issue several

manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...

s throughout the

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, then mostly part of the

. Atanasescu, then 25 years old, was an Aromanian

from the village of Trnovo ( or ) who was in a

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when he stumbled across one of the comitte's manifestos. He would go to Bucharest on 20 July 1861 and begin his studies there with the aim of returning to his village and establishing a Romanian school in Trnovo, one of the main objectives of the committee being the creation of

Romanian schools in the Balkans Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

for the Aromanians. About 3 years later, Atanasescu, who had not even finished his studies yet, asked for financial support from the Romanian authorities, receiving a positive response from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cults and Public Instruction Dimitrie Bolintineanu. Thus, on 2 July 1864, the first Romanian school in the Balkans for the Aromanians was established by Atanasescu. However, some Greek nationalist and ecclesiastical figures saw this with bad eyes and began to persecute Atanasescu. On November of the same year, the Archbishop Benedict of Pelagonia arrested him and confiscated 1,000 of his Romanian manuals. Atanasescu was released shortly after, and returned to Bucharest in 1865. To this the Romanian authorities responded by intensifying their support for Romanian schools for the Aromanians. As a consequence to these measures, at the beginning of the 20th century, there were up to 106 Romanian schools in the region of Macedonia with 300 teachers and 4,000 students. These schools taught their initial classes in Aromanian, but later switched to Romanian for the more advanced ones. Many of the people who participated in this movement of establishing Romanian schools for Aromanians were ethnic Aromanians themselves, and not only Romanians.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atanasescu, Dimitri 1836 births 1907 deaths Aromanian schoolteachers Romanian people of Aromanian descent Aromanians from the Ottoman Empire Schoolteachers from the Ottoman Empire People from Bitola Municipality Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Romania

Biography

See also

References