Janina vilayet

The Vilayet of Janina, Yanya or Ioannina (Ottoman Turkish: ولايت يانیه, romanized: Vilâyet-i Yanya)^[3] was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire, established in 1867.^[4] In the late 19th century, it reportedly had an area of 18,320 square kilometres (7,070 sq mi).^[5] It was created by merging the Pashalik of Yanina and the Pashalik of Berat with the sanjaks of Janina, Berat, Ergiri, Preveze, Tırhala and Kesriye. Kesriye was later demoted to kaza and bounded to Monastir Vilayet and Tırhala was given to Greece in 1881.

ولايت يانیه Vilâyet-i Yānyâ
Vilayet of Ottoman Empire
1867–1912
Flag
The Janina Vilayet in 1867–1912
Capital	Yanya (Ioannina)
Population
• 1897[1]	595,108
• 1911[2]	560,835
History
• Vilayet Law	1867
• First Balkan War	1912
Preceded by Succeeded by Ioannina Eyalet Kingdom of Greece Principality of Albania
Today part of	Albania Greece

A map showing the administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire in 1317 Hijri, 1899 Gregorian, Including the Vilayet of Janina and its Sanjaks.

History

Greek National Movement in Epirus

Educational institutions in Vilayet (1908): red for Greek, purple for Romanian, blue for Italian

Ottoman map of the south part of the Vilayet (1896)

Although part of the local population contributed greatly to the Greek War of Independence (1821–1830) the region of Epirus did not become part of the Greek state that time. In 1878, a rebellion broke out with the revolutionaries, mostly Epirotes, taking control of Sarandë and Delvinë. However, it was suppressed by the Ottoman troops, who burned 20 villages of the region.^[6]

In the following year, the Greek population of Ioannina region authorized a committee in order to present to the European governments their wish for union with Greece.^[7]

In 1906 the organization Epirote Society was founded by members of the Epirote diaspora, Panagiotis Danglis and Spyros Spyromilios, that aimed at the annexation of the region to Greece^[8] by supplying local Greeks with firearms.^[9]

Albanian National Awakening

See also: Albanian National Awakening

Janina Vilayet was one of the main centers of the cultural and political life of Albanians who lived in Janina Vilayet and Monastir Vilayet.^[10] One of the most important reasons was the influence by Greek education and culture south-Albanian writers received in the famous Greek school of Ioannina, the Zosimaia.^[10] Abdyl Frashëri, the first political ideologue of the Albanian National Awakening^[11] was one of the six deputies from Janina Vilayet in the first Ottoman Parliament in 1876–1877.^[12] Abdyl Frashëri, from Frashër, modern Albania, together with Mehmet Ali Vrioni from Berat (also in modern Albania), and some members of Ioannina's Albanian community, founded the Albanian Committee of Janina in May 1877.^[10] Frashëri fought against decisions of the Treaty of San Stefano.^[10] However, the League of Prizren, was primarily Muslim Albanian, while the local Orthodox Christians felt more sympathy to the Greek cause.^[13][14]

End of Ottoman rule

During the Albanian Revolt of 1912 Janina Vilayet was proposed as one of four vilayets consisting Albanian Vilayet. The Ottoman government ended the Albanian revolts by accepting almost all demands of Albanian rebels on September 4, 1912, which included the formation of the vilayet later in 1912.^[15]

Following the First Balkan War of 1912–1913 and the Treaty of London the southern part of the vilayet, including Ioannina, was incorporated into Greece.^[16] Greece had also seized northern Epirus during the Balkan Wars, but the Treaty of Bucharest, which concluded the Second Balkan War, assigned Northern Epirus to Albania.^[17]

Demographics

The vilayet of Janina was ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse.

There have been a number of estimates about the ethnicity and the religious affiliation of the local population. The Ottoman Empire classified and counted its citizens according to religion and not ethnicity, which led to inefficient censuses and lack of classification of populations according to their ethnic groups.^{[18][19][20][21][22]} The vilayet was predominantly inhabited by Albanians and Greeks, while the major religions were Islam and Christian Orthodoxy.^[23][24][25] The districts of Janina which were later incorporated into Greece were heavily Greek.^[26][27]

According to the 1890/91 Ottoman Yearly report, the vilayet of Janina had 512,812 inhabitants, of which 44% were Muslims, 48% were orthodox Christians 7% were Aromanians, and 0.7% were Jewish. Orthodox Albanians constituted for 52% of the Orthodox population, whilst Greeks constituted 48% of the Orthodox population. Albanians accounted for 69% of the population whilst Greeks accounted for 23% of it.^[28]

According to Aram Andonyan and Zavren Biberyan in 1908 of a total population of 648,000, 315,000 inhabitants were Albanians, most of which were Muslims and Orthodox, and some who were adherents of Roman Catholicism.^[29] Aromanians and Greeks were about 180,000 and 110,000 respectively.^[29] Smaller communities included Bulgarians, Turks, Romanis and Jews.^[29]

According to Tom Winnifrith and Eleftheria Nikolaidou the Ottoman statistics of 1908 after the recognition of the Aromanian community provide the following figures per ethnic group: out of a total population of 550,000 the Greeks were the most numerous (300,000), followed by Albanians (210,000), Aromanians (25,000) and the Jewish community (3,000).^[30][31] Nikolaidou adds that the sanjaks of Janina, Preveza and Gjirokastër were predominantly Greek, the sanjak of Igoumenitsa (then Gümeniçe, Reşadiye between 1909 and 1913 due to honour of Mehmet V, Ottoman Sultan) had a slight majority of Greeks, and that of Berat north was predominantly Albanian.^[30] According to her the official Ottoman statistics in the Vilayet of Janina had the tendency to favor the Albanian element at the expense of the Greek one.^[32] Winnifrith states that a decline of the population is noticeable in these figures as a result of emigration to Greece and America, while the Aromanian figure appears small.^[31]

Heraclides & Kromidha (2023) argue that Albanians were the majority in the whole vilayet with 2/3 of Albanians being Muslims, while Christian Orthodox Greeks formed a strong minority. Albanians were dominant in the north and center of the vilayet, and Greeks dominant in the south.^[33]

According to Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb in 1895 there were c. 224,000 Muslims. The Orthodox population included c. 118,000 Greeks (partly of Albanian origin, Hellenized over a century by Greek religious and educational institutions) and c. 129,500 Albanians, and the Jewish population amounted to 3,500 people.^[34] According to Zafer Golen two-thirds of the population were Albanian Muslims,^[35] while according to Dimitrios Chasiotis c. 419,403 of the total population were Greeks, along with 239,000 Turks and Albanians, and 6,000 Jews.^[36] Lontos estimated that 3/4 of the population was Christian.^[36]

Ottoman Official statistic of 1893 & 1911
Group	1893[37]	1911[2]
Orthodox ("Greeks")[39]	286,304	311,032
Muslims ("Turks")[39]	225,415	244,638
Jews	3,677	3,990
Catholics	83	-
Other	997	1,175
Total	516,476	560,835

Non-official estimates of Yanya Vilayet
Ethnicity	1890-91(Dushku)[28]	1895 (Gibb)[40]	1908 (Andonyan & Biberyan)[29]	1908 (Nikolaidou, Winnifrith)[30][31]
Albanians	353,840	129,517 - 353,495	315,000	210,000
Greeks	117,947	118,033	110,000	300,000
Aromanians	35,897		180,000	25,000
Turks		0 - 223,885	10,000	20,000
Bulgarians			20,000
Romani			7,000
Jews	3,590	3,517	6,000	3,000
Total	512,812	474,952	648,000	550,000

Administrative divisions

Sanjaks of the Vilayet:^[41]

1. Sanjak of Ioannina (Yanya, Aydonat, Filat, Maçova, Leskovik, Koniçe)
2. Sanjak of Ergiri (Ergiri, Delvine, Sarandoz, Premedi, Fraşer, Tepedelen, Kurvelesh, Himara)
3. Sanjak of Preveze (Preveze, Loros, Margliç)
4. Sanjak of Berat (Berat, Avlonya, Loşine, Fir)

See also

• Pashalik of Yanina
• Pashalik of Berat

Sources

• Clogg, R. (2002). A Concise History of Greece. London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00479-9.

References

1. Mutlu, Servet. "Late Ottoman population and its ethnic distribution" (PDF). pp. 29–31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-18. Retrieved 2012-12-24. Corrected population for Mortality Level=8.
2. Teaching Modern Southeast European History Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine. Alternative Educational Materials, p. 26
3. Salname-yi Vilâyet-i Yanya ("Yearbook of the Vilayet of Janina"), Vilâyet matbaası, Yanya [Greece], 1288 [1871]. in the website of Hathi Trust Digital Library.
4. Rumelia at the Encyclopædia Britannica
5. Europe by Éliseé Reclus, page 152
6. M. V. Sakellariou. Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civilization. Ekdotike Athenon. ISBN 978-960-213-371-2, p. 292.
7. Sakellariou M. V.. Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civilization. Ekdotikē Athēnōn, 1997, ISBN 978-960-213-371-2, p. 293
8. Sakellariou, M. V. (1997). Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civilization. Ekdotike Athenon. p. 310. ISBN 978-960-213-371-2.
9. Sakellariou, M. V. (1997). Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civilization. Ekdotike Athenon. p. 360. ISBN 978-960-213-371-2.
10. Trencsényi, Balázs; Kopeček, Michal (2006). Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945): texts and commentaries. Late Enlightenment - Emergence of the Modern National Idea. Vol. 1. Central European University Press. p. 348. ISBN 963-7326-52-9.
11. Kopeček, Michal; Ersoy, Ahmed; Gorni, Maciej; Kechriotis, Vangelis; Manchev, Boyan; Balazs; Turda, Marius (2006), Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945), vol. 1, Budapest, Hungary: Central European University Press, p. 348, ISBN 963-7326-52-9, retrieved January 18, 2011, the first political ideologue of the Albanian Revival..
12. Balázs Trencsényi, Michal Kopeček (2006). Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945). Central European University Press. ISBN 9789637326523. Retrieved 19 September 2010. In the first Ottoman parliament of 1876–1877 he was one of six deputies appointed for Iannina villayet
13. Skendi, Stavro (1967). The Albanian national awakening, 1878–1912. Princeton University Press. p. 108. ISBN 9780691650029.
14. Γιάννης Χατζής. Η Αλβανική Εθνική Κίνηση και η Προοπτική μιας Ελληνοαλβανικής Προσσέγγισης. p. 67
15. Shaw, Stanford J.; Ezel Kural Shaw (2002) [1977]. "Clearing the Decks: Ending the Tripolitanian War and the Albanian Revolt". History of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey. Vol. 2. United Kingdom: The Press Syndicate of University of Cambridge. p. 293. ISBN 0-521-29166-6. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
16. Clogg 2002, p. 105: "In February 1913 the Greek Army seized Ioannina, the capital of Epirus. The Turks recognized the gains of the Balkan allies by the Treaty of London, in May 1913."
17. Clogg 2002, p. 105: "The Second Balkan War had short duration and the Bulgarians... to an independent Albania."
18. classified Turkish Foreign Policy, 1774–2000 William M. Hale
19. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society Royal Historical Society
20. Sarajevo:A Bosnian Kaleidoscope, Fran Markowitz
21. Region, Regional Identity and Regionalism in Southeastern Europe, Klaus Roth
22. The Arab world, Turkey, and the Balkans (1878–1914): a handbook of historical statistics Justin McCarthy
23. Justin McCarthy. Death and exile: the ethnic cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922. Darwin Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-87850-094-9, p. 162
24. Stephanie Schwanders-Sievers,Bernd Jürgen Fischer. Albanian identities: myth and history. Indiana University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-253-34189-1, p. 57.
25. The revolution of 1908 in Turkey, Aykut Kansu
26. Justin McCarthy. and exile: the ethnic cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922. Darwin Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-87850-094-9, p. 162
27. Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers,Bernd Jürgen Fischer.myth and history. Indiana University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-253-34189-1, p. 57.
28. Dushku, Ledia (2019-12-01). "The Vilayet of Ioannina in Front of Hellenism". Südost-Forschungen. 78 (1): 70. doi:10.1515/sofo-2019-780106. ISSN 2364-9321. S2CID 229165927.
29. Erickson, Edward J. (2003). Defeat in detail: the Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912–1913. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-275-97888-4. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
30. Nikolaidou, Eleftheria (1997). "From the Congress of Berlin to the Liberation of Epirus". Epirus: 4000 of Greek Culture and Civilization. Ekdotike Athenon: 356. ISBN 9789602133712.
31. Winnifrith, Tom (2002). Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania. Duckworth. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-7156-3201-7. Turkish figures in 1908, after the authorities... Vlachs is remarkably small
32. Nikolaidou, Eleftheria (1997). "From the Congress of Berlin to the Liberation of Epirus". Epirus: 4000 of Greek Culture and Civilization: 356. ISBN 978-960-213-371-2.
33. Heraclides, Alexis; Kromidha, Ylli (2023). Greek-Albanian Entanglements since the Nineteenth Century: A History. Taylor & Francis. p. 9. ISBN 9781003224242. In the Pashalik of Janina under Ali Pasha, a multiethnic semi-independent entity of some 75,000 square kilometres, which dominated the scene for more than 30 years, from 1788 until late 1821, the Greeks (Greek speakers to be more exact) formed the majority because the Pashalik was not confined to the original vilayet of Janina, but included other parts of southern Albania, a section of central Macedonia, most of Thessaly and even a large chunk of Sterea Ellada (Rumeli as it was then known), save for Viotia and Attica, as well as the city of Patras in Peloponnese (Morea as it was then known). (.) According to Nathalie Clayer and other specialists, to the north and centre of the vilayet, the Albanians dominated and in the south the Greeks. Most commentators tended to draw a line in the vilayet, from Saranda to Konica or from Himara and Girokaster to Konica, on the north of which the Albanians dominated and in the south the Greeks were preponderant. But there were several exceptions to this demarcation, such as the Chams in the south and the Vlachs and Roma in various places. In the whole vilayet, the Greek presence and influence were considerable in these 90 years, with the Greeks a strong minority but with the Albanian speakers, be they Muslim and Orthodox Christians, the majority of the population, two-thirds of which were Muslim Tosks and one-third Orthodox Christian Tosks, living mainly in the santzak of Girokaster and in the north and west of the Janina santzak.
34. Gibb, Hamilton (1954). Encyclopedia of Islam. Brill. p. 652. Retrieved 5 March 2011. According to the Ottoman year-book of 1895 there were, in the province of Yanya (Epirus and Albania south of the Devoll River), 223,885 Muslims, 118,033 Greeks, 129,517 Orthodox Albanians, 3,517 Jews and only 93 Roman Catholics. It must be added that a part of these Greeks were in origin Orthodox Albanians graecised through the Greek religious and educational institutions which were zealously founded beginning with the second half of the 18th century.
35. MEHMET AKĠF ERSOY’UN GENÇLĠĞĠNDE BALKANLAR’DA OSMANLI Archived 2013-01-24 at the Wayback Machine
36. M. V. Sakellariou. Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civilization. Ekdotikē Athēnōn, 1997, ISBN 9789602133712, p. 356
37. Kemal H. Karpat. Ottoman Population Records and the Census of 1881/82-1893 Int. J. Middle East Stud. 9 (1978), 237-274, p. 37
38. Nußberger Angelika; Wolfgang Stoppel (2001), Minderheitenschutz im östlichen Europa (Albanien) (PDF) (in German), Universität Köln, p. 8, archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03, retrieved 2021-10-25, war im ubrigen noch keinerlei Nationalbewustsein anzutreffen, den nicht nationale, sodern religiose Kriterien bestimmten die Zugehorigkeit zu einer sozialen Gruppe, wobei alle Orthodoxe Christen unisono als Griechen galten, wahrend "Turk" fur Muslimen stand..." [...all Orthodox Christians were considered as "Greeks", while in the same fashion Muslims as "Turks
39. Under the Ottoman classification system, all Orthodox Christians were classified as "Greeks", and all Muslims were classified as "Turks" - regardless of ethnic affiliation.^[38]
40. Gibb, Hamilton (1954). Encyclopedia of Islam. Brill. p. 652. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
41. Yanya Vilayeti | Tarih ve Medeniyet

External links

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Iannina" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 215.
• Media related to Vilayet of Janina at Wikimedia Commons