Assyrians

Assyrians (Syriac: ܣܘܪ̈ܝܐ, romanized: Sūrāyē / Sūrōyē) are a distinct ethnic group native to Mesopotamia, with historical roots in the ancient Assyrian Empire. They speak varieties of Neo-Aramaic, a branch of the Semitic language family, and the majority adhere to Syriac Christianity. Some members of the community identify alternatively as Chaldeans or Arameans, based on religious, regional, and historic traditions.

The ancient Assyrians originally spoke Akkadian, an East Semitic language, but subsequently switched to the Aramaic language and currently speak various dialects of Neo-Aramaic, specifically those known as Suret and Turoyo, which are among the oldest continuously spoken and written languages in the world. Aramaic (language of the Arameans) was the lingua franca of West Asia for centuries and was the language spoken by Jesus. It has influenced other languages such as Hebrew and Arabic, and, through cultural and religious exchanges, it has had some influence on Mongolian and Uighur. Aramaic itself is the oldest continuously spoken and written language in the Middle East, with a history stretching back over 3,000 years.

Assyrians are almost exclusively Christian, with most adhering to the East and West Syriac liturgical rites of Christianity. Both rites use Classical Syriac as their liturgical language. The Assyrians are known to be among some of the earliest converts to Christianity, along with Jews, Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, and Arabs.

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. 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, including the Assyrian genocide or Sayfo, as well as religious persecution by Islamic extremists. The most recent reasons for emigration are due to events such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, the Syrian civil war, and the emergence of the Islamic State. 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.

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. 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.

The modern Assyrian ethnonym (Asurāyā/Atorāyā) is closely linked to the self-designations of Aramaic-speaking Christians in Mesopotamia. During the late antiquity period, these communities adopted the term Sūryoyo, an Aramaic adaptation of the Greek Súrios. This term gradually replaced the older Aramaic autonym Armāyā ("Aramean") in literary, liturgical, and vernacular contexts, though both names continued to be used side by side well into the medieval period.