Aristeidis Kollias

Aristeidis P. Kollias (; , July 8, 1944 October 1, 2000), was a Greek lawyer, publicist, and folklorist of Arvanite background. He was also president of the Association of the Arvanites Marko Boçari.

Life Kollias was an Arvanite. He was born in Leontari (old name: Kaskaveli), Boeotia in Central Greece, a village inhabited mainly by Arvanites. Kollias authored two books in both Albanian and Greek on the situation in Kosovo regarding massacres and other human rights violations by Slobodan Miloševic of Albanians in the 1990s. In 1996 Kollias relinquished his position as head of the Arvanite league of Greece organisation to devote his time toward Pelasgian studies.

Kollias also published a magazine "Besa". He cooperated and maintained connections with the Albanian diaspora and collaborated with Italian Arberesh, Arbëresh of Corsica, Arbanas of Croatia, Albanians of Kosovo, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Turkey and with intellectuals from around the world. In 2004 Bajram Rexhepi, then Prime Minister of Kosovo, consigned posthumously to the widow of Kollias a decoration for her spouse'a contributions in the defense of the rights to the people of Kosovo. In addition, the municipality of Skënderaj made Kollias a citizen of honour of the city of the same name. In 2022 he was awarded posthumously the "Honour of the Nation" decoration , the highest decoration to be given in Albania. In Përmet, a public park was named after Kollias.

Legacy In 1983, Kollias authored a book titled Arvanites and the Origin of Greeks which he reedited several times and was translated into Albanian in 2002. In Albania, the book has been used to "prove" the precedence of Albanians over Greeks and to rehabilitate Albanians as the oldest rooted population in the Balkans.

Works Arvanites and the origin of the Greeks, 1983. Language of gods, 1989. Arvanitas Union statement Corrective Dictionary of Arvanitic words Comparative Dictionary of the Albanian Language Greece trapped in Milosevic Serbs Song of Mercenaries, Greek ancestry Myth and Truth Third funeral of Marko Bocari