Global InformationAssyrian people information
 Ethnic flag used by most Assyrians | |
 World distribution of the Assyrian diaspora | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 3.3–5+ million[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Assyrian homeland: | Numbers can vary |
 Iraq | 142,000–200,000[8][9] |
 Syria | 200,000–877,000 (pre-Syrian civil war)[10][11][12][13] |
 Turkey | 25,000[14] |
 Iran | 7,000–17,000[15] |
| Assyrian diaspora: | Numbers can vary |
 United States | 600,000[16][17][18] |
 Sweden | 150,000[19] |
 Germany | 70,000–100,000[20][21] |
 Jordan | 30,000–150,000[22][23] |
 Australia | 61,000 (2020 est.)[24] |
 Lebanon | 50,000[25] |
 Netherlands | 25,000–35,000[26] |
 Canada | 19,685[27] |
 France | 16,000[28] |
 Russia | 14,000[29] |
 Greece | 6,000[30] |
 Armenia | 2,769–6,000[31][32] |
 Austria | 2,500–5,000[33][34] |
 United Kingdom | 3,000–4,000[35] |
 Georgia | 3,299[36][37] |
 Palestine | 1,500–5,000[38][39] |
 Ukraine | 3,143[40] |
 Italy | 3,000[41] |
 New Zealand | 1,497[42] |
 Israel | 1,000[43] |
 Denmark | 700[44] |
 Kazakhstan | 350[45] |
| Languages | |
| Neo-Aramaic languages (Suret, Turoyo), Classical Syriac (liturgical), Akkadian (in antiquity), Sumerian (in antiquity) | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Syriac Christianity Minority Protestantism, Islam and Judaism | |
Assyrians[a] are an indigenous ethnic group native to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians descend directly from Ancient Mesopotamians such as ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.[46][47] Modern Assyrians may culturally self-identify as Syriacs, Chaldeans, or Arameans for religious, geographic, and tribal identification.[48][49]
Assyrians speak Akkadian-influenced Aramaic (Suret, Turoyo), one of the oldest continuously spoken and written languages in the world. Aramaic has influenced Hebrew, Arabic, and some parts of Mongolian and Uighur. Aramaic was the lingua franca of West Asia and the language Jesus spoke.[50][51][52][53]
Assyrians are almost exclusively Christian,[54] with most adhering to the East and West Syriac liturgical rites of Christianity.[55][56] Both rites use Classical Syriac as their liturgical language. The Assyrians were among the early converts to Christianity, along with Jews, Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, and Nabataeans.
The ancestral indigenous lands that form the Assyrian homeland are those of ancient Mesopotamia and the Zab rivers, a region currently divided between modern-day Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, and northeastern Syria.[57] A majority of modern Assyrians have migrated to other regions of the world, including North America, the Levant, Australia, Europe, Russia and the Caucasus. Emigration was triggered by genocidal events throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as religious persecution by Islamic extremists.
The emergence of the Islamic State and the occupation of a significant portion of the Assyrian homeland resulted in another major wave of Assyrian displacement due to events such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, and the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011. Of the one million or more Iraqis who have fled Iraq since the occupation, nearly 40% were indigenous Assyrians, even though Assyrians accounted for only around 3% of the pre-war Iraqi population.[58][59]
The Islamic State was driven out from the Assyrian villages in the Khabour River Valley and the areas surrounding the city of Al-Hasakah in Syria by 2015, and from the Nineveh Plains in Iraq by 2017. In 2014, the Nineveh Plain Protection Units was formed and many Assyrians joined the force to defend themselves. The organization later became part of Iraqi Armed forces and played a key role in liberating areas previously held by the Islamic State during the War in Iraq.[60] In northern Syria, Assyrian groups have been taking part both politically and militarily in the Kurdish-dominated but multiethnic Syrian Democratic Forces (see Khabour Guards and Sutoro) and Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
- ^ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "Refworld – World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Turkey: Syriacs". Refworld. Archived from the original on 3 May 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
- ^ Baumer 2006.
- ^ Murre van den Berg 2011, p. 2304.
- ^ Simmons, Mary Kate (1998). Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization: yearbook. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN 978-90-411-0223-2.
- ^ SIL Ethnologue estimate for the "ethnic population" associated with Neo-Aramaic Archived 2 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Assyrians return to Turkey from Europe to save their culture". Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
- ^ "Assyrians: "3,000 Years of History, Yet the Internet is Our Only Home"". www.culturalsurvival.org. 25 March 2010. Archived from the original on 20 January 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ "Population Project". Shlama Foundation. Archived from the original on 23 April 2023. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
- ^ "Erasing the Legacy of Khabour: Destruction of Assyrian Cultural Heritage in the Khabour Region of Syria". Assyrian Policy Institute.
- ^ "Syria's Assyrians threatened by extremists – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East". Al-Monitor. 28 April 2014. Archived from the original on 15 January 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
- ^ "Prior to the start of the war in Syria, it is estimated that the country was home to approximately 200,000 ethnic Assyrians" Syria: Assyrian Policy Institute Archived 31 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Assyrian population in Iraq, estimated at approximately 200,000, constitutes the largest remaining concentration of the ethnic group in the Middle East." Assyrian Policy Institute's Erasing the Legacy of the Khabour: Destruction of Assyrian Cultural Heritage in the Khabour Region of Syria Archived 28 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Turkey-Syria deal allows Syriacs to cross border for religious holidays "An estimated 25,000 Syriacs live in Turkey, while Syria boasts some 877,000."
- ^ "2018 U.S. Department of State International Religious Freedom Report: Turkey". Archived from the original on 25 April 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ "2018 U.S. Department of State International Religious Freedom Report: Iran". Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ "Assyrian Genocide Resolution Read in Arizona Assembly". www.aina.org. Archived from the original on 7 March 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
- ^ "Arizona HCR2006 – TrackBill". trackbill.com. Archived from the original on 23 July 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
- ^ "HCR2006 – 542R – I Ver". www.azleg.gov. Archived from the original on 4 March 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
- ^ Nyheter, SVT (9 May 2018). "Statministerns folkmordsbesked kan avgöra kommunvalet: "Underskatta inte frågan"". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 9 May 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
- ^ "Diskussion zum Thema 'Aaramäische Christen' im Kapitelshaus" Borkener Zeitung (in German) (archived link, 8 October 2011)
- ^ 70,000 Syriac Christians according to REMID Archived 25 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine (of which 55,000 Syriac Orthodox).
- ^ "Assyrian and Chaldean Christians Flee Iraq to Neighboring Jordan". ChristianHeadlines.com. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ "Brief History of Assyrians". www.aina.org. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ "2071.0 – Census of Population and Housing: Reflecting Australia – Stories from the Census, 2016". Archived from the original on 9 July 2017.
- ^ "Lebanon | Assyrian Policy Institute". Assyrian Policy. Archived from the original on 16 October 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ Miri, Adhid (27 January 2021). "Chaldeans in Europe Part V". Chaldean News. Archived from the original on 14 December 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
- ^ "Canada Census Profile 2021". Census Profile, 2021 Census. Statistics Canada Statistique Canada. 7 May 2021. Archived from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- ^ Wieviorka & Bataille 2007, pp. 166
- ^ НАСЕЛЕНИЕ ПО НАЦИОНАЛЬНОСТИ И ВЛАДЕНИЮ РУССКИМ ЯЗЫКОМ ПО СУБЪЕКТАМ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ. Russian Federal State Statistics Service (in Russian). Archived from the original on 24 July 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2013.
- ^ Tzilivakis, Kathy (10 May 2003). "Iraq's Forgotten Christians Face Exclusion in Greece". Athens News. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
- ^ "2011 Armenian Census" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
- ^ "Assyrians in Armenia wish to have own representative in Parliament". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
- ^ "Assyrische Bevölkerung weltweit". bethnahrin. Archived from the original on 16 October 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
- ^ Özkan, Duygu (31 March 2012). "Die christlichen Assyrer zu Wien". DiePresse. Archived from the original on 24 June 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
- ^ "This figure is an estimate from the Assyrian Cultural and Advice Centre" [1] Archived 1 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine at Iraqi Assyrians in London: Beyond the 'Immigrant/Refugee' Divide; Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, 1995 Archived 28 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "According to the 1989 population census, there were 5,200 Assyrians in Georgia (0.1 percent); according to the 2002 census, their number dropped to 3,299, while their percentage remained the same" [2] Archived 2021-10-25 at the Wayback Machine [The Assyrians of Georgia: Ethnic Specifics Should Be Preserved in the Journal of Central Asia and the Caucasus]
- ^ "Georgia – ecoi.net – European Country of Origin Information Network". Archived from the original on 5 November 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
- ^ "Syriacs still going strong – Syriacs in Palestine". 28 March 2017. Archived from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
- ^ Shams, Alex (2 November 2015). "Learning the language of Jesus Christ". Roads & Kingdoms. Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
- ^ State statistics committee of Ukraine – National composition of population, 2001 census Archived 24 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine (Ukrainian)
- ^ "Brief History of Assyrians". www.aina.org. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
- ^ "2013 Census ethnic group profiles: Assyrian". Statistics New Zealand. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
- ^ "The ethnic origin of Christians in Israel". parshan.co.il (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 22 January 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ^ Fenger-Grøndahl, Af Malene (1 May 2017). "Assyrer: At vi har vores eget sted, styrker min følelse af at høre til i Danmark". Kristeligt Dagblad (in Danish). Archived from the original on 16 October 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
- ^ "Assyrian Community in Kazakhstan Survived Dark Times, Now Focuses on Education". The Astana Times. 19 December 2014. Archived from the original on 30 March 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
- ^ Kramer, Samuel Noah (1988). In the world of Sumer: an autobiography. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2121-6. OCLC 17726815.
- ^ A. Leo Oppenheim (1964). Ancient Mesopotamia (PDF). The University of Chicago Press. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
- ^ Hays, Jeffrey. "ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS, CHALDEANS AND JACOBITES | Facts and Details". factsanddetails.com. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
- ^ Hanish, Shak (22 March 2008). "The Chaldean Assyrian Syriac people of Iraq: an ethnic identity problem". Digest of Middle East Studies. 17 (1): 32–48. doi:10.1111/j.1949-3606.2008.tb00145.x.
- ^ Naby, Eden (2016), The Assyrians and Aramaic: Speaking the Oldest Living Language of the Middle East.
- ^ The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Aramaic language.
- ^ Barr, James, WHICH LANGUAGE DID JESUS SPEAK? SOME REMARKS OF A SEMITIST, p. 29.
- ^ Khan, Geoffrey (2012), The Language of the Modern Assyrians: The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialect group.
- ^ Minahan, James (2002). Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: A-C. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-313-32109-2.
The Assyrians, although closely associated with their Christian religion, are divided among a number of Christian sects. The largest denominations are the Chaldean Catholic Church with about 45% of the Assyrian population, the Syriac Orthodox with 26%, the Assyrian Church of the East with 19%, the free Orthodox Church of Antioch or Syriac Catholic Church with 4%, and various Protestant sects with a combined 6%.
- ^ For Assyrians as a Christian people, see
- Joel J. Elias, The Genetics of Modern Assyrians and their Relationship to Other People of the Middle East Archived 13 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Hanish 2015, p. 517.
- ^ Laing-Marshall 2005, p. 149-150.
- ^ "Assyrian Christians 'Most Vulnerable Population' in Iraq". The Christian Post. Archived from the original on 8 December 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2006.
- ^ "U.S. Gov't Watchdog Urges Protection for Iraq's Assyrian Christians". The Christian Post. Archived from the original on 11 December 2007. Retrieved 31 December 2007.
- ^ "Video: Iraqi troops liberate Christian town of Bartella from IS group". France 24. 23 October 2016. Archived from the original on 16 February 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
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