Assyrian people

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Assyrians / Syriacs
ܐܬܘܪ̈ܝܐ Āṯūrāyē / ܣܘܪܝܝܐ Sūryāyē [51]
Image:Assyrian people.jpg Ashurnasirpal II • Ephrem the Syrian • Agha Petros • Freydun Atturaya
Naum Faiq • Ammo Baba • Rosie Malek-Yonan • Ashour Asho
Total population

ca. 3,3-4,3 million[52][53][54]

Regions with significant populations
Assyrian homeland
Image:Flag of Iraq.svg Iraq+Image:Flag of Syria.svg Syria ca. 0.5-2.5 million [55]
Image:Flag of Iran.svg Iran 10,000 [56]
Image:Flag of Turkey.svg Turkey 5,000 [56]
Assyrian diaspora
Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States ca. 83,000-300,000 [57][58]
Image:Flag of Jordan.svg Jordan 77,000 [59][60]
Image:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden 80,000 [61]
Image:Flag of Australia.svg Australia 24,000 [62]
Image:Flag of Germany.svg Germany 23,000[citation needed]
Image:Flag of France.svg France 15,000 [63]
Image:Flag of Russia.svg Russia 14,000 [64]
Image:Flag of Canada.svg Canada 7,000 [65]
Image:Flag of Armenia.svg Armenia 3,409 [66]
Language(s)
Aramaic
(various Neo-Aramaic dialects)
Religion(s)
Syriac Christianity
(various Eastern denominations)
Related ethnic groups
Other Semitic peoples, and other ethnic groups from the Fertile Crescent.[42]

The Assyrians (also called Syriacs or Chaldeans; see names of Syriac Christians) are an ethnic group whose origins lie in what is today Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, but many of whom have migrated to the Caucasus, North America and Western Europe during the past century. Hundreds of thousands more live in Assyrian diaspora and Iraqi refugee communities in Europe, the former Soviet Union, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.

As a result of persecution in the wake of the First World War, there is now a significant Assyrian diaspora. Major events included the Islamic revolution in Iran,[1] the Simele massacre, and the Assyrian genocide that occurred under Ottoman Turkish rule in the early 1900s. The latest event to hit the Assyrian community is the war in Iraq; of the one million or more Iraqis reported by the United Nations to have fled, forty percent are Assyrian, despite Assyrians comprising only three to five percent of the Iraqi population.[2][3][4]

Contents

[edit] History

Main articles: History of the Assyrian people and Assyrian Genocide

The Assyrian people are descended from the population of the ancient Assyrian Empire, which itself emerged from the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon of Akkad.[5][6][7] Eventually, Assyrian kings conquered Aramaean tribes and assimilated them into the Assyrian empire,[8][9][10] and their language, Aramaic, supplanted the native Akkadian language,[7][11][12] due in part to the mass relocations enforced by Assyrian kings of the Neo-Assyrian period.[13] The modern Assyrian identity is therefore believed to be a miscegenation, or ethnogenesis, of the major ethnic groups which inhabited Assyria-proper, which were, for the most part, Assyrian, and to some extent, Aramaean.[14] By the 5th century BC, "Imperial Aramaic" had become lingua franca in the Achaemenid Empire.[15]

The Assyrian people are believed to have descended from the ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia (Aramaic: Bet-Nahrain, "the land of the rivers"), who, in the 7th century BC, controlled a vast empire which stretched from Egypt and Anatolia, across the land between two rivers, to western Iran. Tradition maintains that the history of the Assyrian people stretches back over 6,500 years, to the dawn of Mesopotamian civilization.[16] Culturally and linguistically distinct from, although quite influenced by, their neighbours in the Middle East - the Arabs, Persians, Kurds, Turks, and Armenians - the Assyrians have endured much hardship throughout their recent history as a result of religious and ethnic persecution.[17][18]

[edit] Demographics

Further information: List of Assyrian settlements
Image:Assyrianadministartedareasuggestion2005.jpg
Assyrians in Iraq account for a slight majority in two Ninewa counties, Tel Kaif and Al-Hamdaniya.

Assyrian populations are distributed between the Assyrian homeland and the Assyrian diaspora. There are no official statistics, and estimates of the total number of Syriac Christians vary greatly, between less than one and more than three million, mostly due to the uncertainty of the number of Assyrians Iraq (since the 2003 Iraq war in significant but unknown numbers dislocated to Syria). The diaspora population accounts for roughly 300,000 people,[citation needed] the largest diaspora community in the Near East being in Jordan, and the largest oversea communities found in the United States and in Sweden. The main demographic subdivision is along geographic as well as linguistic and denominational lines, the three main groups being:

In northern Iraq, Assyrians are concentrated in the Ninewa and Dahuk governorates. Assyrian settlements in northwestern Iran are located in the West Azarbaijan Province, those of northeastern Syria in the Al-Hasakah province. Assyrians of Turkey's Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia have mostly moved to the diaspora.

[edit] Iraq War

Since the Iraq War starting in 2003, there has been a massive persecution of Assyrians in Iraq, mostly by Islamic extremists. In places like Dora, an estimated 90% of Iraq's Assyrian population has either fled or been murdered.[19]

[edit] Identity

Assyrian people
Image:Assyrianculture.jpg
Culture
Music
Language
(Assyrian • Chaldean • Turoyo)
Cuisine
Dance
Religion
Clothing
Villages
Further information: Names of Syriac Christians
Further information: Muslim Assyrians, Arabization, and Kurdification

Assyrians are divided among several churches (see below). They speak and many can read and write modern Assyrian, a dialect of Neo-Aramaic.[20]

In certain areas of the Assyrian homeland, identity within a community depends on a person's village of origin (see List of Assyrian villages) or Christian denomination, for instance Chaldean Catholic.[21]

Assyrians and other ethnic groups feel pressure to identify as "Arabs",[22][23] and "Kurds".[24] Assyrians in Syria, are disappearing as an ethnic group, due to assimilation.[25]

Neo-Aramaic ("Modern Assyrian")[26][27] exhibits is remarkably conservative features compared with Imperial Aramaic,[28] and the earliest European visitors to northern Mesopotamia in modern times encountered a people called "Assyrians" and men with ancient Assyrian names such as Sargon and Sennacherib.[29][30][31] The Assyrians manifested a remarkable degree of linguistic, religious, and cultural continuity from the time of the ancient Greeks, Persians, and Parthians through periods of medieval Byzantine, Arab, Persian, and Ottoman rule.[32]

Assyrian nationalism emphatically connects Modern Assyrians to the population of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This connection is disputed,[33] but receives support from Assyriologists like H.W.F. Saggs, Robert D. Biggs and Simo Parpola,[34][35][36] and Iranistics like Richard Nelson Frye.[14][10] They believe that the modern Assyrians truly are the descendants of the ancient Assyrians.[37]

The question of ethnic identity and self-designation is sometimes connected to the scholarly debate on the etymology of "Syria". The question has a long history of academic controversy, but mainstream opinion currently favours that Syria is indeed ultimately derived from the Assyrian term Aššūrāyu.[38][10][39]

Image:Iraqvillagealqosh.JPG
Alqosh, located in the midst of Assyrian contemporary civilization.

Rudolf Macuch points out that the Eastern Neo-Aramaic press initially used the term "Syrian" (suryêta) and only much later, with the rise of nationalism, switched to "Assyrian" (atorêta).[40] According to Tsereteli, however, a Georgian equivalent of "Assyrians" appears in ancient Georgian and Armenian documents.[41]

More recent archaeological findings have added to the debate, attesting to the synonymy between the terms "Assyria" and "Syria", including the Çineköy Inscription[38].

DNA analysis that has been conducted "shows that [Assyrians] have a distinct genetic profile that distinguishes their population from any other population."[42] Genetic analysis of the Assyrians of Persia demonstrated that they were "closed" with little "intermixture" with the Muslim Persian population.[43]

[edit] Culture

Image:Assyrianclothes23.jpg
Assyrian child dressed in traditional clothes.
Main article: Assyrian culture

Assyrian culture is dictated by religion. The language is also tied to the church as well for it uses the Syriac language in liturgy. Festivals occur during religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas. There are also secular holidays such as Akitu (the Assyrian New Year).[44]

People often greet and bid relatives farewell with a kiss on each cheek and by saying "Peace be upon you." Others are greeted with a handshake with the right hand only; according to Middle Eastern customs, the left hand is associated with evil. Similarly, shoes may not be left facing up, one may not have their feet facing anyone directly, whistling at night is thought to waken evil spirits, etc.

There are many Assyrian customs that are common in other Middle Eastern cultures. A parent will often place an eye pendant on their baby to prevent "an evil eye being cast upon it". Spitting on anyone or their belongings is seen as a grave insult.

There are Assyrians that are not very religious yet they may be very nationalistic. Assyrians are proud of their heritage, their Christianity, and of speaking the language of Christ. Children are often given Christian or Assyrian names such as Ashur, Sargon, Shamiram, Nineveh, Ninos, Nimrod, etc. Baptism and First Communion are heavily celebrated events similar to how a Bris and a Bar Mitzvah are in Judaism. When an Assyrian person dies, three days after they are buried they gather to celebrate them rising to heaven (as did Jesus), after seven days they again gather to commemorate their passing. A close family member wears only black clothes for forty days or one year as a sign of respect.

[edit] Language

Main article: Neo-Aramaic languages
Syriac alphabet
(200 BCE–present)
ܐ    ܒ    ܓ    ܕ    ܗ    ܘ
ܙ    ܚ    ܛ    ܝ    ܟܟ    ܠ
ܡܡ    ܢܢ    ܣ    ܥ    ܦ
ܨ    ܩ    ܪ    ܫ    ܬ

The ancient Assyrian tongue was referred to as the Akkadian language (also called Assyro-Babylonian),[7] an East Semitic language written in cuneiform script. After the Assyrian empire expanded westward, Aramaic gradually became the dominant tongue.[7] Aramaic was declared an auxiliary language by King Ashur-nirari V in 752 BC[citation needed] and became a lingua franca under Achaemenid Dynasty of Persia.[15] By the first century AD, Akkadian was extinct. Modern Syriac, however, shares some of its vocabulary, as both are Semitic languages,[45] and a result of vocabulary remnants from the Akkadian language still being preserved in the modern Syriac language.

Most Assyrians speak a modern form of Syriac,[46] an Eastern Aramaic language whose dialects include Chaldean and Turoyo as well as Assyrian. All are classified as Neo-Aramaic languages and are written using Syriac script, a derivative of the ancient Aramaic script. Assyrians also may speak one or more languages of their country of residence.

To the native speaker, "Syriac" is usually called Soureth or Suryoyo. A wide variety of dialects exist, including Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, and Turoyo. Being stateless, Assyrians also learn the language or languages of their adopted country, usually Arabic, Armenian, Persian or Turkish. In northern Iraq and western Iran, Kurdish is widely spoken.

Recent archaeological evidence includes a statue from Syria with Assyrian and Aramaic inscriptions.[47] It is the oldest known Aramaic text.

[edit] Religion

Image:Chaldean.jpg
Image:Assyrian Church of the East Symbol.JPG
Image:شعار الكنيسة.jpg
Main article: Syriac Christianity

Assyrians became Christians during the first century AD,[34] though not until during the third century had they all become Christians.[12] Some Assyrians also claim that their ancestors became Christians during the lifetime of Jesus.[48] Jesus spoke of "Men of Nineveh", repenting from their old sins; this refers to when the prophet Jonah visited the Assyrian capital Nineveh:

The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

– Luke 11:32, King James Version

Many members of the following churches consider themselves Assyrian. Ethnic identities are deeply intertwined with religion, a legacy of the Ottoman Millet system.

Main Churches

A small minority of Assyrians accepted the Protestant Reformation in the 20th century, possibly due to British influences, and is now organized in the Assyrian Evangelical Church, the Assyrian Pentecostal Church and other Protestant Assyrian groups.

Based on the following Bible passage, many Assyrians hold apocalyptic beliefs regarding the future of their nation:[49]

In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the Assyrians, and the Assyrian shall enter into Egypt, and the Egyptian to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrian. In that day shall Israel be the third to the Egyptian and the Assyrian: a blessing in the midst of the land, Which the Lord of hosts hath blessed, saying: "Blessed be my people of Egypt, the work of my hands Assyria, and Israel my inheritance."

– Isaiah 19:23-25

[edit] Music

Main article: Assyrian music

Assyrian music is divided into three main periods: ancient music written in Ur, Babylon and Nineveh; a middle period of tribal and folkloric music; and the modern period.

[edit] Art

Main article: Assyrian art

An Assyrian artistic style distinct from that of Babylonian art which was the dominant contemporary art in Mesopotamia, began to emerge c.1500 B.C. and lasted until the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC. The characteristic Assyrian art form was the polychrome carved stone relief that decorated imperial monuments.

[edit] Cuisine

Main article: Assyrian cuisine

Assyrian cuisine is very closely related to other Middle Eastern cuisines, predating both Arab and Turkish cuisine. It is also similar to Armenian, Persian, Israeli and Greek cuisine. It is believed that Assyrians invented baklava in the eighth century BC.[50]

[edit] Institutions

Image:FlagofAssyria.svg
The Assyrian flag.

[edit] Political parties

[edit] Other institutions

[edit] Religious divisions

[edit] See also



[edit] External links

[edit] Notes and References

  1. ^ Dr. Eden Naby. Documenting The Crisis In The Assyrian Iranian Community.
  2. ^ "Assyrian Christians 'Most Vulnerable Population' in Iraq", The Christian Post. Retrieved on 2006-12-05. 
  3. ^ "Iraq's Christian community, fights for its survival", Christian World News. 
  4. ^ "U.S. Gov't Watchdog Urges Protection for Iraq's Assyrian Christians", The Christian Post. Retrieved on 2007-12-31. 
  5. ^ Early History of Assyria, By Sidney Smith, University of Michigan, 1928
  6. ^ http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=AE_Chart
  7. ^ a b c d http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9005290/Akkadian-language#62711.hook
  8. ^ Parpola, Simo (2004). "National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times" (in English) (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies Vol. 18 (No. 2): pp. 8-9. JAAS.
  9. ^ see e.g. Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. Aram.
  10. ^ a b c Frye, Richard N. (1992). "Assyria and Syria: Synonyms" (in English) (PDF). Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 51 (No. 4): pp. 281-285. JNES.
  11. ^ The History of Ancient Mesopotamia. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.. “By this time the process of "Aramaicization" had reached even the oldest cities of Babylonia and Assyria.”
  12. ^ a b Parpola, Simo (1999). Assyrians after Assyria. Assyriologist. Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, Vol. XIII No. 2,. “Distinctively Assyrians names are also found in later Aramaic and Greek texts from Assur, Hatra, Dura-Europus and Palmyra, and continue to be attested until the beginning of the Sasanian period. These names are recognizable from the Assyrian divine names invoked in them; but whereas earlier the other name elements were predominantly Akkadian, they now are exclusively Aramaic. This coupled with the Aramaic script and language of the texts shows that the Assyrians of these later times no longer spoke Akkadian as their mother tongue. In all other respects, however, they continued the traditions of the imperial period. The gods Ashur, Sherua, Istar, Nanaya, Bel, Nabu and Nergal continued to be worshiped in Assur at least until the early third century AD; the local cultic calendar was that of the imperial period; the temple of Ashur was restored in the second century AD; and the stelae of the local rulers resemble those of Assyrian kings in the imperial period. It is also worth pointing out that many of the Aramaic names occurring in the post-empire inscriptions and graffiti from Assur are already attested in imperial texts from the same site that are 800 years older.”
  13. ^ Hooker, Richard. Mesopotamia, the Assyrians, 1170-612, The Assyrian Period. Washington State University.
  14. ^ a b Frye, Richard N. (1992). Assyria and Syria: Synonyms. PhD., Harvard University. Journal of Near Eastern Studies. “The ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote that the Greeks called the Assyrians, by the name Syrian, dropping the A. And that's the first instance we know of, of the distinction in the name, of the same people. Then the Romans, when they conquered the western part of the former Assyrian Empire, they gave the name Syria, to the province, they created, which is today Damascus and Aleppo. So, that is the distinction between Syria, and Assyria. They are the same people, of course. And the ancient Assyrian empire, was the first real, empire in history. What do I mean, it had many different peoples included in the empire, all speaking Aramaic, and becoming what may be called, "Assyrian citizens." That was the first time in history, that we have this. For example, Elamite musicians, were brought to Nineveh, and they were 'made Assyrians' which means, that Assyria, was more than a small country, it was the empire, the whole Fertile Crescent.”
  15. ^ a b Aramaic Documents of the Fifth Century B. C. by G. R. Driver
  16. ^ http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9110693/Mesopotamian-religion
  17. ^ Parpola, Simo (2004). "National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times" (in English) (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies Vol. 18 (No. 2): pp. 21. JAAS.
  18. ^ Assyrians. World Culture Encyclopedia.
  19. ^ "Vicar: Dire Times For Iraq's Christians", CBS News. Retrieved on 2007-12-04. (English) 
  20. ^ Florian Coulmas, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems 23 (1996)
  21. ^ Note on the Modern Assyrians
  22. ^ Iraqi Assyrians: A Barometer of Pluralism
  23. ^ http://www.aina.org/releases/20070416140021.htm
  24. ^ http://www.aina.org/news/20061120133220.htm
  25. ^ http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-29952/Syria#404105.hook
  26. ^ Assyrians. “Historians and linguists use the term "modern Assyrian" to refer to the language spoken by the modern Assyrians. see: Andrew Dalby, Dictionary of Languages: The definitive reference to more than 400 languages (2004): 32; Dr. J. F. Coakley, "The First Modern Assyrian Printed Book," Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society, vol. 9 (1995)”
  27. ^ Eden Naby & Michael E. Hopper eds., The Assyrian Experience: Sources for the study of the 19th and 20th centuries: from the holdings of the Harvard University Libraries (with a selected bibliography) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Library, 1999)
  28. ^ J.G. Browne, ‘‘The Assyrians,’’ Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 85 (1937)
  29. ^ George Percy Badger, The Christians of Assyria Commonly Called Nestorians (London: W.H. Bartlett, 1869)
  30. ^ J.F. Coakley, The Church of the East and the Church of England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), pp. 5, 89, 99, 149, 366–67, 382, 411
  31. ^ Michael D. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 279
  32. ^ Fred Aprim, Assyrians: The Continuous Saga (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2004); ‘‘Parthia,’’ in The Cambridge Ancient History: The Roman Republic, 2nd ed., vol. 3, pt. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 597–98; Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 55–60; ‘‘Ashurbanipal and the Fall of Assyria,’’ in The Cambridge Ancient History: The Assyrian Empire, vol. 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954), 130–31; A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948), 168; Albert Hourani, Minorities in the Arab World (London: Oxford University Press, 1947), 99; Aubrey Vine, The Nestorian Churches (London: Independent Press, 1937); Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, trans. William Whiston (1737), bk. 13, ch. 6, http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-13.htm; Simo Parpola, ‘‘National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in the Post-Empire Times,’’ Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 18, 2 (2004): 16–17; Simo Parpola, ‘‘Assyrians after Assyria,’’ Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 12, 2 (2000): 1–13; R.N. Frye, ‘‘A Postscript to My Article [Assyria and Syria: Synonyms],’’ Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 11 (1997): 35–36; R.N. Frye, ‘‘Assyria and Syria: Synonyms,’’ Journal of the Near East Society 51 (1992): 281–85; Michael G. Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 336, 345; J.G. Browne, ‘‘The Assyrians,’’ Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 85 (1937)
  33. ^ Smith, Sidney (1925). Early History of Assyria to 1000 B.C.. “The disappearance of the Assyrian people will always remain a unique and striking phenomenon in ancient history. Other, similar kingdoms and empires have indeed passed away but the people have lived on... No other land seems to have been sacked and pillaged so completely as was Assyria.”
  34. ^ a b Saggs, H.W.F. (1984). The Might That Was Assyria. Sidgwick & Jackson, pp. 290. ISBN 0283989610. OCLC 10569174. “The destruction of the Assyrian empire did not wipe out its population. They were predominantly peasant farmers, and since Assyria contains some of the best wheat land in the Near East, descendants of the Assyrian peasants would, as opportunity permitted, build new villages over the old cities and carry on with agricultural life, remembering traditions of the former cities. After seven or eight centuries and various vicissitudes, these people became Christians.” 
  35. ^ Robert D. Biggs (2005). "My Career in Assyrialogy and Near Eastern Archaeology" (in English). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies Vol. 19 (No. 1): pp. 14. JAAS. “I think there is very likelihood that ancient Assyrians are among the ancestors of the modern Assyrians of the area.”
  36. ^ Parpola, Simo (2004). "National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times" (in English) (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies Vol. 18 (No. 2): pp. 22. JAAS.
  37. ^ Parpola, Simo. Assyrians after Assyria. Assyriologist. University of Helsinki. Retrieved on 1999-09-04.
  38. ^ a b Rollinger, Robert (2006). The terms “Assyria” and “Syria” again (PDF). Assyriology 284-287. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 65(4).
  39. ^ Parpola, Simo (2004). "National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in Post-Empire Times" (in English) (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies Vol. 18 (No. 2): pp. 16. JAAS.
  40. ^ Rudolf Macuch, Geschichte der spät- und neusyrischen Literatur, New York: de Gruyter, 1976.
  41. ^ Tsereteli, Sovremennyj assirijskij jazyk, Moscow: Nauka, 1964.
  42. ^ a b http://www.assyrianfoundation.org/genetics.htm
  43. ^ M.T. Akbari, Sunder S. Papiha, D.F. Roberts, and Daryoush D. Farhud, ‘‘Genetic Differentiation among Iranian Christian Communities,’’ American Journal of Human Genetics 38 (1986): 84–98
  44. ^ The Assyrian New Year
  45. ^ Akkadian Words in Modern Assyrian
  46. ^ The British Survey, By British Society for International Understanding, 1968, page 3
  47. ^ A Statue from Syria with Assyrian and Aramaic Inscriptions
  48. ^ http://www.abc.net.au/rn/religionreport/stories/2007/1937124.htm
  49. ^ Assyria in Prophecy
  50. ^ History of Baklava, Turkish Culture: Baklava, Baklava War Intesifies, Baklava
  51. ^ Controversially also ܐܪܡܝܐ Ārāmāyē, see Assyrian naming dispute.
  52. ^ adherents.com; 3.3 million: Gamming, Jenny. They have a flag-but no country " in Swedish Expressen, 17 August. 1997. (Viewed 16 August. 1999). Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organisation web site. Translated by SSF/Goran Hansson.[1]
  53. ^ http://www.jaas.org/edocs/v10n2/yoab2.pdf
  54. ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aii
  55. ^ CIA World Factbook gives an upper limit of some 500,000 in Syria and some 800,000 in Iraq. About 100,000 Assyrians are estimated to have dislocated from Iraq to Syria since 2003 (see Refugees of Iraq#Christians)
  56. ^ a b Encyclopedia of the Orient: Assyrians
  57. ^ 2000 United States census
  58. ^ http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/narative.htm
  59. ^ Immigration of Iraqi Chaldeans Abroad Passes through Jordan
  60. ^ http://i-cias.com/e.o/jordan_4.htm
  61. ^ SvD
  62. ^ 2001 Australian census
  63. ^ US Citizenship and Immigration Services
  64. ^ 2002 Russian census
  65. ^ Canada statistics
  66. ^ [2]


v • d • e
Assyrian communities around the world
v • d • e
Ethnic groups in Iran

Major:  Persians (53%-72%)[Lors - 2%) • Azeris (24%) • Guilaki and Mazandarani (8%) • Kurds (7%) • Arabs (3%) • Baloch (2%) • Turkmens (2%)
Minor (1%):  Qashqai • Armenians • Persian Jews • Georgians • Assyrians • Circassians • Talysh • Tats • Pashtuns

Image:Iran tricolour.png
v • d • e
- ܣܘܖ̈ܝܝܐ
Syriac Christianity
ChurchesAncient Church of the East · Assyrian Church of the East · Assyrian Evangelical Church · Chaldean Catholic · Maronite Church · Syriac Catholic · Syriac OrthodoxImage:Mary16thC.jpg
SubgroupsAssyrian people · Chaldeans · Nestorians · Syriacs · Naming dispute
ar:آشوريون

arc:ܐܬܘܪ̈ܝܐ br:Asirianed bg:Асирийци ca:Assiris da:Assyrere de:Assyrer (Gegenwart) et:Assüürlased eo:Asirianoj fa:آسوری fr:Assyriens ko:아시리아인 he:אשורים ka:ასურელები ku:Asûrî hu:Asszírok ms:Orang Assyria nl:Assyriërs (volk) no:Assyrere pl:Asyryjczycy (współcześni) ro:Asirieni ru:Ассирийцы sk:Asýrčania sl:Asirci sh:Asirci fi:Assyrialaiskristityt sv:Assyrier tr:Süryaniler

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