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The Syriac language, also known as Syriac Aramaic and Classical Syriac ܠܫܢܐ ܥܬܝܩܐ, is an Aramaic dialect that emerged during the first century AD from a local Aramaic dialect that was spoken in the ancient region of Osroene, centered in the city of Edessa. During the Early Christian period, it became the main literary language of various Aramaic-speaking Christian communities in the historical region of Ancient Syria and throughout the Near East. As a liturgical language of Syriac Christianity, it gained a prominent role among Eastern Christian communities that used both Eastern Syriac and Western Syriac rites. Following the spread of Syriac Christianity, it also became a liturgical language of eastern Christian communities as far as India and China. It flourished from the 4th to the 8th century, and continued to have an important role during the next centuries, but by the end of the Middle Ages it was gradually reduced to liturgical use, since the role of vernacular language among its native speakers was overtaken by several emerging Neo-Aramaic dialects.
Assyrians in Syria are an ethnic and linguistic minority that are indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia, the north-eastern half of Syria. Syrian-Assyrians are people of Assyrian descent living in Syria, and those in the Assyrian diaspora who are of Syrian-Assyrian heritage.
Suruç is a rural district and city of Şanlıurfa Province of Turkey, on a plain near the Syrian border 46 kilometres (29 mi) southwest of the city of Urfa.
The Assyrian homeland, Assyria refers to the homeland of the Assyrian people within which Assyrian civilisation developed, located in their indigenous Upper Mesopotamia. The territory that forms the Assyrian homeland is, similarly to the rest of Mesopotamia, currently divided between present-day Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. In Iran, the Urmia Plain forms a thin margin of the ancestral Assyrian homeland in the north-west, and the only section of the Assyrian homeland beyond the Mesopotamian region. The majority of Assyrians in Iran currently reside in the capital city, Tehran.
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The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria is a de facto autonomous region of Syria that emerged from 2012 onwards during the Syrian civil war and in particular the Rojava conflict. The current administration emphasises gender equality and pluralistic tolerance for religious and cultural diversity.
A number of Christian militias in Iraq and Syria have been formed since the start of the Syrian Civil War and in the 2013-2017 War. The militias are composed of fighters mainly from the Assyrian but also include Arab and Armenian Christian communities in Syria, and Assyrians in Iraq have formed militias in the north to protect Assyrian communities, towns and villages in the Assyrian homeland and Nineveh Plains. Some foreign Christian fighters from the Western world have also joined these militias.
The Bethnahrain Women's Protection Forces is an all-female Assyrian military and police organization based in al-Qahtaniyah, al-Hasakah Governorate, Syria.
References
- 1 2 "Democracy is "Radical" in Northern Syria". Inter Press Service. 2014-10-28. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ "Kurds carve out their Syrian statelet". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ "Asya Abdulla: Investigation Continues on ISIS's Use of Chemical Weapons — Zaniyar Omrani, Kobani". ekurd.net. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ "Meet the Christian Soldiers Fighting for Their Lives Against ISIS". Haaretz. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
- ↑ MacDiarmid, Campbell (5 July 2015). "YPG Kurdish fighters' success against Islamic State makes Turkey nervous". The Washington Times. Retrieved 2023-03-16.