Zicu A. Araia (1 July 1877 – 1948; Greek: Ζήκος Αράιας,[1] Zíkos Aráias) was an Aromanian poet, schoolteacher and separatist leader.
Araia also played an important role in the two Aromanian separatist projects that took place in Greece in the 20th century: that of World War I, the self-declared canton in Samarina; and that of World War II, the Principality of the Pindus, with Araia having been an important partner and collaborator for prominent separatist Alcibiades Diamandi and the Italian occupation authorities.
Araia would then teach at the Romanian school of Samarina–Vlachogianni (functioning in Samarina during the summer and in Vlachogianni during the winter), of which he became the head teacher;[3][2] as of 1922, he had held this post for 17 years.
Published in the last issue of Lumina of the year 1907, the poem emulates the metre used by Coșbuc, having a lively verse in which "the images develop one after another without difficulty".
[19] Calea was one of Araia's poems appreciated the most by the Ottoman-born Aromanian folklorist and linguist Tache Papahagi, whom Lascu defined as "exigent".
[8] Cândroveanu suggested that Calea might have been written under the influence of the Romanian poet and politician with Aromanian origins Dimitrie Bolintineanu, although "with much more sense of the real" than him.
[2] Mailu și Pindul is a poem with 21 stanzas, the last two of which give an insight, according to Lascu, on Araia's sentiments of identification with Romania:[8] Ma, di cînd văpsita-ñi miră Ñi-scrise-a ñia-n treile seri S-bănedzu sclav, tu lăi ghideri, Ñi-asburară... Ș-tuț fudziră, La Carpaț a mei xifteri!"
Aghiu-Ghiorghi di pri-albul cal Țî oru ca s-vearsă pri-arană-ț Balsam dulțe ca-n Ardeal!"
According to a report by the Romanian consul in Ioannina, D. A. Mincu, they were accused of "having taken part in the proclamation of the autonomy of the Pindus" and of "having spread inaccurate alarming news to the authorities".
[26] From the very day the war started, the Greek authorities began to lock up certain Aromanian figures, such as teachers, students and priests of Romanian schools and churches in Greece.
Araia was sent to an internment camp in Corinth,[27] this being "due to his propagandistic activities and his anti-Hellenic opinions" according to the Greek military officer and politician Athanasios Chrysochoou [el].
[26] The aforenamed Diamandi, who had left Greece after the end of World War I, returned to the Pindus in early July once the Italian occupation of the area following the German invasion had been established.
He then assumed the role of "governor" of the area with Italian consent,[28] exercising his own authority as the "representative" of the Aromanian people[29] and rejecting that of the newly established Greek collaborator regime.
[28] Diamandi envisioned the establishment of an autonomous[30] or independent[31] Aromanian state under Italian tutelage encompassing the territories around the Pindus mountains.
[7] Araia was mentioned as the representative of the Bulgarian Aromanians in Diamandi's well-known 1 March 1942 manifesto, published on 2 April by the local press.
An 18 March 1942 report by the command of the Italian 24th Infantry Division "Pinerolo" said about him that "for his moral qualities and his balanced character he is esteemed even by the Greeks".
Initially, the Italian forces intended to burn Grevena before withdrawing to deprive the Greek resistance of the town's facilities and resources and to take revenge on the local population.
The Aromanian figures evacuated to Thessaloniki initially settled in houses that had belonged to the Jewish population of the city,[34] which had been recently deported.
[35] Upon arriving in Thessaloniki, Araia received a telegram with a letter of gratitude from the inhabitants of Grevena for his efforts to prevent the burning of the town.