The Sarakatsanians or Karakachans are greek nomadic(untill two-three decades ago) people. Their origin is from Agrafa mountains where Thessaly,Epirus and Sterea Hellas meet each other. Their name Karakachans means in turkish "'those who flee to uncultivated lands' . Due to their isolation they kept many archaic greek elements in their language and culture.Today they are about 80.000 Sarakatsanians but unfortunately their special dialect is almost lost due to the urbanisation. Because of their nomadic life they travelled with their flocks in all Balkans in the summers and returned in Greece in the winter. But in 1947 a group of Sarakatsanians in Bulgaria wasn't alloweded to return to Greece and they were forced to live there. During the communist bulgarian era the Sarakatsanians were under bulgarisation pressure but after the fall of communism the Bulgarian state gave them all the freedoms needed.
What do you know about Sarakatsanians??
Edited by Patrinos - 05-Oct-2006 at 11:27