Assyrians are an ethnic group indigenous to Mesopotamia, a region in the Middle East. Some self-identify as Syriacs, Arameans, and Chaldeans. Speakers of the Neo-Aramaic branch of Semitic languages as well as the primary languages in their countries of residence, modern Assyrians are Syriac Christians who claim descent from Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, dating back to 2500 BC in ancient Mesopotamia.
The Assyrian diaspora refers to Assyrians living in communities outside their ancestral homeland. The Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrians are descendants of the ancient Assyrians, and are one of the few ancient Semitic ethnicities in the Near East who resisted Arabisation, Turkification and Islamisation during and after the Arab conquest of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.
Assyrian Canadians are Canadians of Assyrian descent or Assyrians who have Canadian citizenship. According to the 2011 Census there were 10,810 Canadians who claimed Assyrian ancestry, an increase compared to the 8,650 in the 2006 Census.
The Assyrian homeland or Assyria is a geo-cultural and historical region situated in Northern Mesopotamia that has been traditionally inhabited by Assyrians. The areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts of present-day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria. Moreover, the area that had the greatest concentration of Assyrians in the world until recently is located in the Assyrian Triangle, a region which comprises the Nineveh plains, southern Hakkari and Barwari regions.
Nineveh Plains is a region in Iraq's Nineveh Governorate to the north and east of the city Mosul. Some parts of the Nineveh Plains are under federal Iraqi control and some parts are under the control of the Kurdistan Region, including Lalish and Ain Sifni.
Assyrian Australians are Australians of Assyrian descent or Assyrians who have Australian citizenship. According to the census, 40,218 persons are Assyrian, 21,166 identified themselves as having Chaldean ancestry. Historically, Assyrian people were indigenous to their ancient ancestral Assyrian homeland that corresponds to modern-day northern Iraq, southeast Turkey northwestern fringes of Iran and, much recently, northeast Syria. The majority of Assyrian Australians have immigrated mainly from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan and the Caucasus.
The Christians of Iraq are considered to be one of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world. The vast majority of Iraqi Christians are indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking ethnic Assyrians. Non-Syriac Iraqi Christians are largely Arab Christians and Armenians, and a very small minority of Kurdish and Iraqi Turkmen Christians. Most present-day Christians are ethnically different from Kurds and they identify themselves as being separate peoples, of different origins and with distinct histories of their own. Syriac Christianity was first established in Mesopotamia, and the Church of the East and its successor churches were established in central-southern Iraq. Syriac Christianity and would eventually spread to becoming one of the most popular Christian churches in the Middle East and Fertile Crescent Region, and would spread as far as India and China. Iraq plays a rich and vital contribution to Christian history, and after Israel, Iraq has the most biblical history than any other country in the world. The patriarch Abraham was from Uruk, in southern Iraq, modern day Nasiriya, and Rebecca was from northwest Iraq. Additionally, Daniel lived in Iraq most of his life. The prophet Ezekiel was from southern Iraq and his shrine is located there. Shrines of Prophet Jonah, Saint George, and various other biblical prophets and saints are attributed to have been originally from Iraq. Adam and Eve are also widely thought to have hailed from Iraq, as the biblical Garden of Eden is largely attributed to have been located in southern Iraq. The number of Christians of Iraq is said to be at around 500,000-1.5 million, according to the EU Research Services on minorities in Iraq, although numbers vary from source to source due to the last Iraqi census having taken place more than 30 years ago. A census is scheduled to take place in 2020 in which the numbers of Christians in Iraq will be clarified.
Chaldean Catholics (;, also known as Chaldeans or Chaldo-Assyrians, are ethnic Assyrian adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church which originates from the Church of the East.
The Qaraqosh Protection Committee is an armed militia formed by Assyrians living in the city of Bakhdida, in Ninawa Governorate of Iraq. The committee, formed in 2004, was organized through local churches, and began manning checkpoints and was soon working with the Iraqi police.
The Assyrian independence movement is a political movement and ethno-nationalist desire of the Assyrian people to live in their traditional Assyrian homeland under the self-governance of an Assyrian State.
Bashiqa, is a town located in the Al-Hamdaniya District of the Ninawa Governorate in northern Iraq, about 12 kilometres northeast of Mosul.
The Assyrian exodus from Iraq refers to the mass flight and expulsion of ethnic Assyrians from Iraq, a process which was initiated from the beginning of Iraq War in 2003 and continues to this day. Leaders of Iraq's Assyrian community estimate that over two-thirds of the Iraqi Assyrian population may have fled the country or been internally displaced since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 until 2011. Reports suggest that whole neighborhoods of Assyrians have cleared out in the cities of Baghdad and Basra, and that Sunni insurgent groups and militias have threatened Assyrians. Following the campaign of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Iraq in August 2014, one quarter of the remaining Iraqi Assyrians fled the Jihadists, finding refuge in Turkey and Kurdistan Region.
An independence referendum for Kurdistan Region of Iraq was held on 25 September 2017, with preliminary results showing approximately 93.25 percent of votes cast in favour of independence. Despite reporting that the independence referendum would be non-binding, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) characterised it as binding, although they claimed that an affirmative result would trigger the start of state building and negotiations with Iraq rather than an immediate declaration of independence of Kurdistan. The referendum's legality was rejected by the federal government of Iraq.
The persecution of Christians by ISIL involves the systematic mass murder of Christian minorities, within its region of control in Iraq, Syria and Libya by the Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following its takeover of parts of Northern Iraq in June 2014.
The Sons of Mesopotamia, also known as Abnaa Al-Nahrain and Bnay Nahrain, is an ethnic Assyrian political party based in northern Iraq. It was founded in 2013, and is headquartered in Erbil, Iraq. Established to further the political objectives of the Assyrian people in Iraq, the party currently holds one seat in the Kurdistan Region Parliament. According to its official website, the party exists as a renewed commitment to the Assyrian national cause, for the betterment of the Assyrian people, and to advance their struggle for legitimate rights in Iraq.
The Nineveh Plain Forces or NPF is a military organization that was formed on 6 January 2015 by indigenous Assyrian Christians in Iraq, in cooperation with Peshmerga, to defend against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Nineveh plains are a region at the heart of the Assyrian homeland. The militia is affiliated with the Bet-Nahrain Democratic Party and the Beth Nahrain Patriotic Union (HBA), the latter being part of the secular Dawronoye movement. It participated in the Battle of Mosul (2016–17).
Juliana Taimoorazy is an Assyrian American activist from Iran. She is the founder and current president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, a position that she's held since its inception in 2007. From 2015 to 2020, she was a senior fellow with the Philos Project, an organization that aims to increase Christian engagement in the Middle East. She became a refugee when her family left Iran in 1989, and was subsequently granted asylum in the US at the age of 17 in 1990.
The Assyrian Policy Institute (API) is a non-governmental and nonprofit organization based in the United States that primarily advocates for the rights of Assyrians and other minorities in the Middle East including Yazidis and Mandaeans.
Hurmiz Malik Chikko, also sometimes spelled Hormiz Malek Chikko, was an Assyrian advocate and army leader. He led the Assyrian armed struggle against the ruling Ba'ath Party in Iraq from the late 1950s until his death in 1963 and promoted Assyrian autonomy in the Nineveh Plains during his life.
The persecution of Yazidis by Muslims has been ongoing since at least the 15th century. Yazidis are an endogamous and mostly Kurmanji-speaking minority, indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia. The Yazidi religion has been regarded as devil worship by Muslim fundamentalists in earlier centuries,as well as by modern Islamists. Yazidis have been persecuted by Kurdish tribes since the 15th century, and by the Ottoman Empire from the 17th to the 20th centuries. As the Ottoman Empire expanded, Kurds and Turks often worked together to persecute Yazidis. Much of the Ottoman persecution sought to convert the Yazidis to Islam. This was also a goal of Kurdish persecution, as well as to assimilate them culturally through Kurdification. Ottoman and Kurdish persecution of Yazidis was at its worst during the 19th century.
