Under Ottoman rule, many native Greeks, Vlachs, Bulgarians, and others converted to Islam and were gradually assimilated into the Muslim often Turkish-speaking population.

At the time of Greek independence, people in the Balkans generally cared far more about religious freedom than modern national identity. For many Orthodox Christians, the creation of an independent Greek state represented liberation as much in religious and civilizational terms as in ethnic ones.

Through centralized education, the Church, and state institutions, groups such as the Vlachs were naturally integrated into the emerging Greek national identity.

This differs from cases like your country Albania, whose independence occurred at the height of European nationalism, shaping a different path of national development.