Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin served as the 117th Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East.
The Sayfo, also known as the Seyfo or the Assyrian genocide, was the mass murder and deportation of Assyrian/Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish tribes during World War I.
Petros Elia of Baz, better known as Agha Petros, was an Assyrian military leader during World War I. He is considered a national hero for the Assyrians, and other Christian minorities in the Middle East.
Assyrians in Iran, or Iranian Assyrians, are an ethnic and linguistic minority in present-day Iran. The Assyrians of Iran speak Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, a neo-Aramaic language descended from the eastern dialects of the old Aramaic language with elements of Akkadian, and are Eastern Rite Christians belonging mostly to the Assyrian Church of the East and also to the Ancient Church of the East, Assyrian Pentecostal Church, Chaldean Catholic Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church.
Hakkari, was a historical mountainous region lying to the south of Lake Van, encompassing parts of the modern provinces of Hakkâri, Şırnak, Van in Turkey and Dohuk in Iraq. During the late Ottoman Empire it was a sanjak within the old Vilayet of Van.
Simko Shikak born 1887, was a Kurdish chieftain of the Shekak tribe. He was born into a prominent Kurdish feudal family based in Chihriq castle located near the Baranduz river in the Urmia region of northwestern Iran. By 1920, parts of Iranian Azerbaijan located west of Lake Urmia were under his control. He led Kurdish farmers into battle and defeated the Iranian army on several occasions. The Iranian government had him assassinated in 1930. Simko took part in the massacre of the Assyrians of Khoy and instigated the massacre of 1,000 Assyrians in Salmas.
Mar Shimun XX Paulos served as the 118th Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East.
Prior to World War I, the Tkhuma were one of five principal and semi-independent Assyrian tribes subject to the spiritual and temporal jurisdiction of the Assyrian Patriarch with the title Mar Shimun. The Assyrians claimed the status of a firman of protection from the Caliphate and of an Ottoman millet to preserve their customs and traditions along with the tribes of Jelu, Baz, Tyari, and Deez/Diz, "forming the highest authority under His Holiness Mar Shimun, the patriarch." The Tkhuma Tribe is a tribe of Assyrians that lived in upper Mesopotamia until 1915, when they were dispersed into Persia, Iraq, and Syria during the Sayfo or Assyrian genocide. In 1915, the representative of the Assyrian Patriarch Shimun XX Paulos wrote that the Tkhuma of "many Christian villages" had "been entirely destroyed."
Malik Khoshaba Yousip Zaia was an Assyrian tribal leader of the Tyari tribe who played a significant role in the Assyrian independence movement during World War I.
The Simko Shikak revolt refers to an armed Ottoman-backed tribal Kurdish uprising against the Qajar dynasty of Iran from 1918 to 1922, led by Kurdish chieftain Simko Shikak from the Shekak tribe.
1926 Simko Shikak revolt was a short-timed Kurdish uprising against the Pahlavi dynasty of Iran in 1926, led by Kurdish chieftain Simko Shikak from Shikak tribe.
Our Smallest Ally: a brief account of the Assyrian Nation in the Great War is a book published in 1920 by William A. Wigram.
The Assyrian volunteers were an ethnic Assyrian military force during WW1, led mainly by General Agha Petros Elia of Baz and several tribal leaders known as Maliks under the spiritual leadership of the Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Shimun Benyamin allied with the Entente Powers described by the English pastor and author William A. Wigram as Our Smallest Ally. The Assyrian volunteers were described as “the Christian army of Revenge” by the British Major E.W.C. Noel.
Dawid Mar Shimun was an Assyrian military leader From World War I up until the Simele Massacre in 1933 when he was exiled to Cyprus along with his son Mar Eshai Shimun. His first hand experience and contribution during the years leading up to the family's exile to Cyprus in 1933 cannot be overlooked, for his presence was common place beside the Patriarchs and his sister, Lady Surma.
Malik Yaqo Ismail (February 12, 1894 - January 25, 1974, was an Assyrian tribal leader who was a Malik of the Upper Tyari tribe and a military leader of the Assyrian Levies.
Malik Qambar was a Catholic-Assyrian national leader and general of the Assyro-Chaldean battalion formed in 1920 as part of the French Foreign Legion.
The Battle of Suldouze was a military engagement between the Assyrian Volunteers led by Agha Petros And the Ottoman soldiers led by Kheiri Bey who were stationed in Suldouze. 1500 Assyrian horsemen overcame the far larger Ottoman force of over 8000.
The Urmia clashes or the Urmia revolt was a series of clashes in the city of Urmia between the Assyrian Volunteers led by Agha Petros and Malik Khoshaba against the city mayor Irshad Homayun and his supporters, including General Arshad el Moolk. This would be caused by the Russian withdrawal from their territories in Qajar Iran due to the Russian Revolution.
The Hakkari Expedition of 1916 was a number of raids conducted by the Assyrian volunteers against local Hakkari Kurdish tribesmen who the year prior, with the help of the Ottomans expelled the Assyrians from Hakkari and resulted in them settling in Russian controlled Urmia and its surroundings.
The Battle of Seray Mountain took place between the Assyrian Volunteers, led by Agha Petros and Malik Khoshaba, and Ottoman Empire force led by Halil Kut.
Assyrian volunteers 
Shekak tribe