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Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people
Sūrāyē / Sūryāyē / Āṯūrāyē ^[1]

Shalmaneser III Semiramis Ashurnasirpal II Esarhaddon Lucian Abgar V Bardaisan Ephrem the Syrian Simeon Stylites Severus of Antioch Hunayn bar Ishaq Bukhtishu Shimun Sulaqa Alphonse Mingana Naum Faiq Agha Petros Ammo Baba Anna Eshoo Rosie Malek Yonan Andre Agassi
Total population
3.3 million[2] - 4.2 million (1994)[3]
Regions with significant populations
Middle East   Iraq 911,987 - 600,000 - 800,000 [4][5][6]   Syria 877,000 - 1,139,000 [7][8]   Iran 74,000 – 80,000 [9][10]   Turkey 24,000 – 70,000 [9][11]   Lebanon 100,000 [12] Diaspora   Sweden 100,000 - 120,000 [13][14]   United States 100,000 - 490,000 [15][9]   Jordan 100,000 - 150,000 [16][17]   Germany 90,000 [18]   Australia 24,505 - 60,000 [19][20]   Canada 38,000 [21]   Russia 70,000 [22]   Netherlands 20,000 [22]   France 20,000 [22]   Belgium 15,000 [22]   Switzerland 10,000 [22]   Denmark 10,000 [22]   Italy 3,000 [22]
Languages
Syriac, Neo-Aramaic (also various Neo-Aramaic dialects) Arabic, Persian, Turkish
Religion
Syriac Christianity (also various Eastern denominations)
Related ethnic groups
Mhallami Other Semitic peoples

The Assyrian people,^[23] most commonly known as Assyrians and other later names, such as: Chaldeans, Syrians, Syriacs (see names of Syriac Christians), are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia. They are Eastern Aramaic speaking Semites who trace their ancestry back to the Sumero-Akkadian civilisation that emerged in Mesopotamia circa 4000- 3500 BC, and in particular to the northern region of the Akkadian lands, which would become known as Assyria by the 24th Century BC. The Assyrian nation existed as an independent state, and often a powerful empire, from the 24th century BC until the end of the 7th century BC.

Today that ancient territory is part of several nations; Assyria remained a Geo-political entity after its fall, and was ruled as an occupied province under the rule of various empires from the late 7th century BC until the mid 7th century AD when it was dissolved, and the Assyrian people have gradually become a minority in their homelands since that time. They are indigenous to, and have traditionally lived all over what is now Iraq, north east Syria, north west Iran, and Southeastern Turkey.^[24] They are predominantly Christian.

Many have migrated to the Caucasus, North America, Australia and Europe during the past century or so. Diaspora and refugee communities are based in Europe (particularly Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, and France), North America, Australia, New Zealand, Lebanon, Armenia, Georgia,^[25] southern Russia, Israel, Azerbaijan and Jordan.

Emigration was triggered by such events as the Assyrian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire during First World War. the Simele massacre in Iraq (1933), the Islamic revolution in Iran (1979), Arab Nationalist Baathist policies in Iraq and Syria, the Al-Anfal Campaign of Saddam Hussein ^[26], and to some degree Kurdish nationalist policies in northern Iraq.

The major sub-ethnic division is between an Eastern group ("Assyrian Church of the East" Assyrian "Chaldean Christians", "Syriac Orthodox", and "Ancient Church of the East") indigenous to Iraq, northwest Iran, northeast Syria and southeast Turkey, and a Western one ("Syrian Jacobites") found in south central Turkey and western and central Syria.

Most recently the Iraq War has displaced the regional Assyrian community, as its people have faced ethnic and religious persecution at the hands of both Sunni and Shia Islamic extremists and Arab and Kurdish nationalists. Of the one million or more Iraqis reported by the United Nations to have fled Iraq since the American occupation, nearly forty percent (40%) are Assyrian, although Assyrians comprised only 3% - 5% of the pre-war Iraqi population.^[27][28][29]

History[link]

Assyrian continuity[link]

Assyrians embrace descendancy from their ancestors who created the great civilisations of ancient Mesopotamia, in particular Assyria, Akkad and Babylonia. This claim has found considerable support among contemporary Assyriologists, Ethnicists and Semitists who have found strong historical,^[30] linguistic,^[31] and genetic ^[32] evidence linking ancient and modern Assyrians.

Ancient history[link]

The Assyrian people can trace their ethnic and cultural origins to the indigenous population of pre-Islamic and pre-Arab Mesopotamia, (in particular Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, Babylon, Mari, Eshnunna, Adiabene, Osroene, Hatra and the geo-political province of Assyria under Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid rule) since before the time of the Akkadian Empire.

Mesopotamia was originally dominated by the Sumerians (from at least 3500 BC) and the native Semites, later to be collectively known as Akkadians lived alongside them. Akkadian ruled city states first appear circa 2800 BC. In the 24th century BC the Akkadians gained domination over the Sumerians under Sargon the Great who founded the worlds first empire. By the 21st century BC the Akkadian Empire had collapsed, and the Akkadians split into essentially two nations; Assyria and some time later, Babylonia, although Babylonia was ruled by non native dynasties for most of its history. According to the Assyrian King List the earliest Assyrian king was a 24th century BC ruler named Tudiya. Assyria became a strong nation in the 21st and 20th century BC, founding colonies in Asia Minor. In the 19th century BC a new wave of Semites, the Amorites entered Mesopotamia from the west, usurping the thrones of the Akkadian states of Assyria, Isin and Larsa, and founded Babylon as an independent City State The Amorite rulers turned Assyria into a short lived imperial power from the late 19th century BC until the mid 18th century BC, However, after its fall to Babylon they were driven from Assyria by a king named Adasi in the late 18th Century BC, but eventually blended into the population of Babylonia in the south, where they maintained rule until 1595 BC. By approximately 1800 BC, the Sumerian race appears to have been wholly absorbed by the Semitic Akkadian population. According to the story told in the Book of Genesis, it is around this time that the Semitic tribal leader Abraham travelled out of Mesopotamia and became the father of his people, the Hebrews.

Assyria and later Babylon, became major powers. There were further influxes of peoples such as Hurrians, Kassites and Mitanni, the Kassites ruled Babylon for over 500 years, and the Mitanni dominated Assyria for a brief period. The Kassites, like the Amorites before them, seem to have disappeared into the general population in Babylonia, while the Mitanni and Hurrians were overthrown and driven out of Assyria. Assyria then once again became a major imperial power from 1365 BC until 1076 BC, rivalling Egypt.

In the 12th century BC a new influx of Semites from the west took place, with the arrival of the Arameans. The Arameans originally set up small kingdoms within Mesopotamia, but were eventually brought under control and incorporated into Assyria and Babylonia where they were culturally and politically Akkadianized, and they ethnically intermixed and blended in with the native Akkadian population.

It was not until the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-608 BC) and the influx and interbreeding with Aramean tribes that the Assyrians and Babylonians began to speak Aramaic, an Akkadian infused Mesopotamian version of the language of the Aramaean tribes who had been assimilated into the Assyrian empire and Mesopotamia in the 9th century BC.^[33] Mass relocations were enforced by Assyrian kings of the Neo-Assyrian period.^[34] During the period of the Neo-Assyrian Empire many Israelite Jews were deported to Assyria and a fair proportion of these were absorbed into the general population.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire (911 BC - 608 BC) saw a massive expansion of Assyrian power, Assyria became the center of the greatest empire the world had yet seen, with Babylon, Chaldea, Persia, Elam, Media, Gutium, Israel, Judah, Aramea (modern Syria), Phonecia/Canaan, Palestine, Mannea, much of Asia Minor (modern Turkey), the Neo-Hittite states, Corduene, Egypt, Cyprus, parts of the Caucasus, Dilmun, Samaria, Edom, Nabatea and Arabia brought under Assyrian control, the empire of Urartu defeated and conquered in the Caucasus, the Nubians, Ethiopians and Kushites defeated and driven from Egypt and the Phrygians paying tribute to Assyria.

After the fall of Nineveh[link]

Following the destruction of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by 608 BC, the population of the Assyria came under the control of their Babylonian relatives until 539 BC. Ironically Nabonidus, the last king of Babylonia was himself from Assyria. From 538 BC, Assyria, (which remained a political and named entity) was under Persian Achaemenid, Macedonian, Seleucid, Parthian Arascid, Roman and Sassanid rule for seven centuries undergoing Christianization during this time. Assyria flourished during the Achaemenid period (from 539-323 BC), becoming a major source of manpower for the Achaemenid armies and a breadbasket for the empire, disproving the Biblical assertion that Assyria was both depopulated and devastated.^[35][36] Assyrians are also attested as having important administrative posts within the empire.

The Seleucid empire succeeded that of the Achaemenids in 323 BC, from this point Greek became the official language of the empire at the expense of Mesopotamian Aramaic. The native populace of Assyria were not Hellenised however, as is attested by the survival of native language, culture and religion. The province flourished much as it had under the Achaemenids for the next century, however by the late 3rd century BC Assyria became a battleground between the Seleucid Greeks and the Parthians but remained largely in Greek hands until the reign of Mithridates I when it fell to the Parthians. During the Seleucid period the term Assyria was altered to read Syria, a Mediterranean form of the original name that had been in use since the 8th or 9th century BC among some western Assyrian colonies. The Seleucid Greeks also named Aramea to the west Syria (read Assyria) as it had been an Assyrian colony for centuries. When they lost control of Assyria proper (which is northern Mesopotamia, north east Syria and part of south east Anatolia), they retained the name but applied it only to Aramea (i.e. The Levant). This created a situation where both Assyrians and Arameans to the west were referred to as Syrians by the Greco-Roman civilisations, causing the later Syrian Vs Assyrian naming controversy. It was renamed Assuristan during the Parthian era. The Parthians appeared to have exercised only loose control at times, leading to the virtual resurrection of Assyria with the native kingdom of Adiabene 15 BC to 117AD.^[37] Its rulers were converts from Mesopotamian religion to Judaism and later Christianity, and it retained Mesopotamian Aramaic as its spoken tongue.^[37]

Adiabene, like the rest of northern Mesopotamia was conquered by Trajan in 117 AD, and the region was named Assyria by the Romans. Christianity, as well as Gnostic sects such as the Sabians and Manicheanism took hold between the 1st and 3rd Centuries AD. The Parthians regained control of the region a few years later, and retained the name Assyria (Assuristan). Other small kingdoms had also sprung up in the region, namely Osrhoene and Hatra, which were Aramaic/Syriac speaking and at least partly Assyrian. Assyrian identity appears to have remained strong, with the 2nd century writer and theologian Tatian stating clearly that he is an Assyrian, as does the satirist Lucian in the same period. Assur itself also appears to have been independent or largely autonomous, with temples being dedicated to the national god of the Assyrians (Ashur) into the second half of the 3rd Century AD, before it was once again destroyed by the invading Sassanids in 256 AD. The Sassanids recognised the land as Assyria, retaining the name Assuristan. Assyrians still seem to have retained a distinct identity and a degree of local autonomy in the Sassanid period, during the 4th century the region around Nineveh was governed by a certain local Assyrian king, who was pointedly named Sennacherib after his ancient ancestor, who established the Mar Behnam monastery in memory of his son.^[38] In 341 AD, the Zoroastrian Shapur II ordered the massacre of all Christians in the Persian Empire, most of whom were Assyrians. During the persecution, about 1,150 Christians were martyred under Shapur II.^[39] Assyria remained recognised as such by its inhabitants, Sassanid rulers and neighbouring peoples until after the Arab Islamic conquest of the second half of the 7th century AD.

These Assyrians became Christian in the first to third centuries.^[40] They were divided by the Nestorian Schism in the fifth century, and from the eighth century, they became both an ethnic minority and a religious minority following the Arab Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia.

Arab conquest[link]

After the Arab Islamic invasion and conquest of the 7th century AD, Assyria as a province was dissolved, but the Assyrians themselves survived, being referred to as Ashuriyun by the Arabs. Assyrians initially experienced some periods of religious and cultural freedom interspersed with periods of severe religious and ethnic persecution. As heirs to ancient Mesopotamian civilisation, they also contributed hugely to the Arab Islamic Civilization during the Ummayads and the Abbasids by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic. They also excelled in philosophy, science and theology ( such as Tatian, Bar Daisan, Babai the Great, Nestorius, Toma bar Yacoub etc.) and the personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often Assyrian Christians such as the long serving Bukhtishu dynasty.^[41] However, non-Islamic proselyting was punishable by death under Sharia law, which led the Assyrians into preaching in Transoxania, Central Asia, India, Mongolia and China where they established numerous churches. The Church of the East was considered to be one of the major Christian powerhouses in the world, alongside Latin Christianity in Europe and the Byzantine Empire.^[42]

From the 7th century AD onwards Mesopotamia saw a steady influx of Arabs, Kurds and other Iranic people,^[43] and later Turkic peoples, and the indigenous population retaining native Mesopotamian culture, identity, language, religion and customs were steadily marginalised and gradually became a minority in their own homeland.^[44] This process of marginalisation was largely completed by the massacres of indigenous Assyrian Christians and other non-Muslims in Mesopotamia and its surrounds by Tamerlane the Mongol in the 14th century AD, and it was from this point that the ancient Assyrian capital of Ashur was finally abandoned by Assyrians.^[45] However, many Assyrian Christians survived the various massacres and pogroms, and resisted the process of Arabization and Islamification, retaining a distinct Mesopotamian identity, Mesopotamian Aramaic language and written script. The modern Assyrians or Chaldo-Assyrians of today are descendants of the indigenous inhabitants of Mesopotamia, and in particular Assyria, who refused to be converted to Islam or be culturally and linguistically Arabized.

Celebration at a Syriac Orthodox monastery in Mosul, Ottoman Syria, early 20th century.

Culturally, ethnically and linguistically distinct from, although both quite influencing on, and quite influenced by, their neighbours in the Middle East—the Arabs, Persians, Kurds, Turks, Jews and Armenians — the Assyrians have endured much hardship throughout their recent history as a result of religious and ethnic persecution.^[46][47]

Mongol and Turkic rule[link]

The region came under the control of the Mongol Empire after the fall of Baghdad in 1258. The Mongol khans were sympathetic with Christians and didn't harm them. The most prominent among them was probably Isa Kelemechi, a diplomat, astrologer, and head of the Christian affairs in the Yuan Dynasty in China. He spent some time in Persia under the Ilkhans. The 14th century AD massacres of Timur in particular, devastated the Assyrian people. Timur’s massacres and pillages of all that was Christian drastically reduced their existence. At the end of the reign of Timur, the Assyrian population had almost been eradicated in many places. Toward the end of the thirteenth century, Bar Hebraeus (or Bar-Abraya), the noted Assyrian scholar and hierarch, found “much quietness” in his diocese in Mesopotamia. Syria’s diocese, he wrote, was “wasted.”

The region was later controlled by Turkic tribes such as the Aq Qoyunlu and Qara Qoyunlu. Seljuq and Arab emirate sought to extend their rule over the region as well.

Ottoman rule[link]

The Ottomans secured their control over Mesopotamia and Syria in the 16th century. Non-Muslims were organised into millets. Syriac Christians, however, were often considered one millet alongside Armenians until the 19th century, when Nestorian, Syriac Orthodox and Chaldeans gained that right as well.^[48]

Hakkari massacre[link]

In 1843 Assyrians living in the mountains of Hakkari in the south eastern corner of the Ottoman Empire faced a massive unprovoked attack from Kurdish tribesman, which resulted in the death of tens of thousands of unarmed Christian Assyrians.^[49]

Hamidian massacres[link]

A major massacre of Assyrians (and Armenians) in the Ottoman Empire occurred between 1894 and 1897 AD by Turkish troops and their Kurdish henchmen during the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The motives for these massacres were an attempt to reassert Pan-Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, resentment at the comparative wealth of the ancient indigenous Christian communities, and a fear that they would attempt to secede from the tottering Ottoman Empire. Assyrians were massacred in Diyarbakir, Hasankeyef, Sivas and other parts of Anatolia, by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. These attacks caused the death of over thousands of Assyrians and the forced "Ottomanisation" of the inhabitants of 245 villages. The Turkish troops looted the remains of the Assyrian settlements and these were later stolen and occupied by Kurds. Unarmed Assyrian women and children were raped, tortured and murdered.^[49]

Assyrian genocide[link]

The most significant recent persecution against the Assyrian population was the Assyrian genocide which occurred during the First World War. Between 500,000 and 750,000 Assyrians were estimated to have been slaughtered by the armies of the Ottoman Empire and their Kurdish allies, totalling up to two-thirds of the entire Assyrian population. This led to a large-scale migration of Turkish-based Assyrian people into countries such as Syria, Iran, and Iraq (where they were to suffer further violent assaults at the hands of the Arabs and Kurds), as well as other neighbouring countries in and around the Middle East such as Armenia, Georgia and Russia.^{[50][51][52][53]}

Modern history[link]

Simele massacre[link]

The Simele Massacre was the first of many massacres committed by the Iraqi Government during the systematic targeting of Assyrians of Northern Iraq in August 1933. The term is used to describe not only the massacre of Simele, but also the killing spree that continued among 63 Assyrian villages in the Dohuk and Mosul districts that led to the deaths of an estimated 3,000 or more civilian Assyrians.

Arab Ba'athist persecution[link]

The Ba'ath Party seized power in Iraq and Syria in 1963, which introduced laws that aimed at suppressing the Assyrian national identity, the Arab Nationalist policies of the Ba'athists included renewed attempts to "Arabize" the Assyrians. The giving of traditional Assyrian/Akkadian names and Aramaic/Syriac versions of Biblical names was banned, Assyrian schools, political parties, churches and literature were repressed and Assyrians were heavily pressured into identifying as Arab Christians. The Ba'athist regime refused to recognise Assyrians as an ethnic group.^[54]

The al-Anfal Campaign of 1986-1989 in Iraq was predominantly aimed at Kurds, however it saw many Assyrian towns and villages razed to the ground, a number of Assyrians were murdered, others were deported to large cities, their land and homes then being appropriated by Arabs and Kurds.^[55]

Kurdish persecution[link]

After the establishment of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq after 1991, the Kurdish Parliament passed laws permitting Kurdish settlers to seize lands owned by Assyrians. Assyrians, together with other ethnic minorities in northern Iraq, have since suffered a great degree of discrimination and pressure from Kurdish nationalists, this includes the officially-sanctioned theft of Assyrian land^{[neutrality is disputed]}, political intimidation against Assyrian political parties, ethnic and religious discrimination, and a number of kidnappings and murders. ^[54][56][57]

Iraq War & Islamist attacks[link]

Since the 2003 Iraq War, social unrest and anarchy have resulted in the unprovoked persecution of Assyrians in Iraq, mostly by Islamic extremists,(both Shia and Sunni), and to some degree by Kurdish Nationalists. In places such as Dora, a neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, the majority of its Assyrian population has either fled abroad or to northern Iraq, or has been murdered.^[58]

Islamic resentment over the United States' occupation of Iraq, and incidents such as the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons and the Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy, have resulted in Muslims attacking Assyrian Christian communities. Since the start of the Iraq war, at least 46 churches and monasteries have been bombed.^[59]

Demographics[link]

Assyrian world popualtion.

  more than 500,000

  100,000 - 500,000

  50,000 - 100,000

  10,000 - 50,000

Homeland[link]

The Assyrians are considered to be one of the indigenous people in the Middle East. Their homeland was thought to be located in the area around the Tigris and Euphrates. Assyrians are traditionally from Iraq, south eastern Turkey, north western Iran and north eastern Syria. There is a significant Assyrian population in Syria, where an estimated 877,000 Assyrians live.^[60] Though it must be pointed out that Syriac Christians from western, central and southern Syria are not generally regarded as Assyrians but rather as Arameans. The true Assyrians of Syria reside mainly in northeastern and eastern Syria, particularly in the Al-Hasakah region. In Tur Abdin, known as a homeland for Assyrians, there are only 3,000 left,^[61] and an estimated 25,000 in all of Turkey.^[62] After the 1915 Assyrian genocide many Assyrians/Syriacs also fled into Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and into the Western world.

The Assyrian/Syriac people can be divided along geographic, linguistic, and denominational lines, the three main groups being:

• the "Western" or "Jacobite" group of Syria, and central eastern Anatolia (Syriac Orthodox Church & Syriac Catholic Church);
• the "Eastern" group of Iraq, northeast Syria south eastern Turkey, northwest Iran and Armenia (Assyrian Church of the East & Ancient Church of the East);
• the "Chaldean Christian" or "Chaldean Catholic"/Chaldo-Assyrian group of northern and central Iraq, northern Iran, and eastern Anatolia (Chaldean Catholic Church); Assyrian followers of the Chaldean Catholic church make up the majority of Iraqi Christian population since the conversion to Catholicism from the Assyrian Church of the East in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Diaspora[link]

Since the Assyrian Genocide, many Assyrians have fled their homelands for a more safe and comfortable life in the West. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Assyrian population in the Middle East has decreased dramatically. As of today there are more Assyrians in Europe, North America, and Australia than in their former homeland.

A total of 550,000 Assyrians live in Europe.^[63] Large Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac diaspora communities can be found in Germany, Sweden, the USA, and Australia. The largest Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac diaspora communities are those of Södertälje, Chicago, and Detroit.

Identity[link]