
Assyrians — a historical summary
The
Assyrians of today are the indigenous
Aramaic-speaking
descendants of the ancient Assyrian people, one of the earliest
civilizations emerging in the Middle East, and have a history
spanning over 6760 years. Assyrians are not Arabian or Arabs, we
are not Kurdish, our religion is not Islam. The Assyrians are
Christian, with our own unique language, culture and heritage.
Although the Assyrian empire ended in 612 B.C., history is replete
with
recorded details of the continuous presence of the Assyrian
people until the present time.
The Assyrian kingdom, being one of the base roots of Mesopotamia,
encouraged urbanization, building of permanent dwellings, and
cities. They also developed agriculture and improved methods of
irrigation using systems of canals and aqueducts. They enhanced
their language that served as a unifying force in writing, trade and
business transaction. They encouraged trade, established and
developed safe routes, protecting citizens and property by written
law. They excelled in administration, documented their performance
and royal achievements, depicting their culture in different art
forms. They built libraries and archived their recorded deeds for
prosperity. They accumulated wealth and knowledge; raised armies in
disciplined formation of infantry, cavalry and war-chariot troops
with logistics; and built a strong kingdom, an unique civilization
and the first world empire.
The heartland of Assyria lays in present day northern Iraq,
northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran. The
remains of the ancient capital of Assyria, Nineveh, is next to Mosul
in northern Iraq.
Prior to the Assyrian
Holocaust which occurred before, during and after World War I,
the major Assyrian communities still inhabited the areas of Harran,
Edessa, Tur Abdin, and Hakkari in southeastern Turkey, Jazira in
northeastern Syria, Urmia in northwestern Iran, and Mosul in
northern Iraq as they had for thousands of years.
The world’s 4 million Assyrians are currently dispersed with
members of the Diaspora comprising nearly one-third of the
population. Most of the Assyrians in the Diaspora live in North
America, Europe and Australia with nearly 460,000 residing in the
United States of America. The remaining Assyrians reside primarily
in Iraq and Syria, with smaller populations in Turkey, Iran,
Lebanon, and Jordan.
The Assyrians are not to be confused with Syrians even though
some Syrian citizens are Assyrian. Although the name of Syria is
directly derived from Assyria and Syria was an integral part of
Assyrian civilization, most of the people of Syria currently
maintain a separate Arab identity. Moreover, the Assyrians are not
Arabs but rather have maintained a continuous and distinct
ethnic
identity, language, culture, and religion that predates the
Arabization of the Near East. In addition, unlike the Arabs who
did not enter the region until the seventh century A.D., the
Assyrians are the indigenous people of Mesopotamia. Until today,
the Assyrians speak a
distinct
language (called
Aramaic
[Syriac]),
the actual language spoken by Jesus Christ. As a Semitic language,
the Aramaic
language is related to Hebrew and Arabic but predates both. In
addition, whereas most Arabs are Muslim, Assyrians are essentially
Christian.
The
Assyrians were among the first to accept Christianity in the first
century A.D. through the Apostle St. Thomas. Despite the subsequent
Islamic conquest of the region in the seventh century A.D., the
Church of the East
flourished and its adherents at one time numbered in the tens of
millions. Assyrian missionary zeal was unmatched and led to the
first
Christian missions to China, Japan, and the Philippines. The
Church of the East stele in
Xian,
China bears testament to a thriving Assyrian Christian Church as
early as in the seventh century A.D. Early on, the Assyrian Church
divided into two ancient branches, the Syrian Orthodox Church and
the Church of the East. Over time, divisions within these Assyrian
Churches led to the establishment of the Chaldean Church (Uniate
Catholic), Syrian Catholic Church, and Maronite Church. Persistent
persecution under Islamic occupation led to the migration of still
greater numbers of Assyrian Christians into the Christian autonomous
areas of Mount Lebanon as well. With the arrival of Western
Protestant and Catholic missionaries into Mesopotamia, especially
since the nineteenth century, several smaller congregations of
Assyrian Protestants arose as well. A direct consequence of
Assyrian adherence to the Christian faith and their missionary
enterprise has been persecution, massacres, and ethnic cleansing by
various waves of non-Christian neighbors which ultimately led to a
decimation of the Assyrian Christian population. Most recently and
tragically, Great Britain invited the Assyrians as an ally in World
War I. The autonomous Assyrians were drawn into the conflict
following successive massacres against the civilian population by
forces of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, Kurds, Arabs and Persians.
Although many geopolitical and economic factors were involved in
provoking the attacks against the Assyrians, a jihad or holy war was
declared and served as the rallying cry and vehicle for marauding
Turks, Kurds, and Persians. Although the Muslim holy war against
the Armenians is perhaps better known, over three-fourths, or
750,000 Assyrian Christians
were also killed between 1843-1945 during the Assyrian Holocaust.
The conflict and subsequent
Assyrian
Holocaust led to the decimation and dispersal of the Assyrians.
Those Assyrians who survived the Holocaust were driven out of their
ancestral homeland in Turkish Mesopotamia primarily toward the area
of Mosul Vilayet in Iraq, Jazira in Syria, and the Urmi plains of
Iran where large Assyrian populations already lived. The massacres
of 1915 followed the Assyrians to these areas as well, prompting an
exodus of many more Assyrians to other countries and continents.
The Assyrian Holocaust of 1915 is the turning point in the modern
history of the Assyrian Christians precisely because it is the
single event that led to the dispersal of the surviving community
into small, weak, and destitute communities.
Most Assyrians in the Diaspora today can trace their emigration
from the Middle East to the Assyrian Holocaust of 1915. Many, who
fled from their original homes into other Middle Eastern countries
subsequently, just one generation later, once more emigrated to the
West. Thus, many Assyrian families in the West today have
experienced transfer to a new country for three successive
generations beginning, for instance, from Turkey to Iraq and then to
the United States.
During
World War I, after the Assyrians ["Our
Smallest Ally"] sided with the victorious Allies,
Great Britain had promised
the Assyrians
autonomy, independence, and a homeland. The Assyrian question
was addressed during postwar deliberations at the League of
Nations. However, with the termination of the British Mandate in
Iraq, the unresolved status of the Assyrians was relinquished to the
newly formed Iraqi government with promises of certain minority
guarantees specifically concerning freedom of religious, cultural,
and linguistic expression. The Assyrians lost two-thirds of their
population during the World Wars.
The
Simele Genocide (Syriac:
ܦܪܡܬܐ
ܕܣܡܠܐ: Premta d-Simele) was the first of many
massacres committed by the Iraqi government during
the
systematic genocide 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 innocent Assyrians. Today, most of these villages
continue to be illegally occupied by Arabs and Kurds.
Currently, the
Assyrians are religiously and ethnically persecuted in the Middle
East due to Islamic fundamentalism, Arabization and Kurdification
policies,
leading to land expropriations and forced emigration to the West.
Related Information
Historical timeline from 1915 to the 1958 Iraqi Revolution detailing the plight and suffering of the Assyrians
1937:
The Assyrians: A Debt of Honour
1935:
League of Nations — The Settlement of the Assyrians, a Work of Humanity
and Appeasement
ANNEMASSE:
The Assyrian Tragedy, February 1934. |
Assyrian National
Petition
Assyrian
Holocaust
Assyrian
History Timeline:
1900's |
1800's
(historical documents, letters and articles)
Armenian,
Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News
(current genocide news information)