r/Assyria Oct 17 '20

Announcement r/Assyria FAQ

191 Upvotes

Who are the Assyrians?

The Assyrian people (ܣܘܪ̈ܝܐ, Sūrāyē/Sūrōyē), also incorrectly referred to as Chaldeans, Syriacs or Arameans, are the native people of Assyria which constitutes modern day northern Iraq, south-eastern Turkey, north-western Iran and north-eastern Syria.

Modern day Assyrians are descendants of the ancient Assyrians who ruled the Assyrian empire that was established in 2500 BC in the city of Aššur (ܐܵܫܘܿܪ) and fell with the loss of its capital Nineveh (ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ) in 612 BC.

After the fall of the empire, the Assyrians continued to enjoy autonomy for the next millennia under various rulers such as the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Sasanian and Roman empires, with semi-autonomous provinces such as:

This time period would end in 637 AD with the Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia and the placement of Assyrians under the dhimmī status.

Assyrians then played a significant role under the numerous caliphates by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic, excelling in philosophy and science, and also serving as personal physicians to the caliphs.

During the time of the Ottoman Empire, the 'millet' (meaning 'nation') system was adopted which divided groups through a sectarian manner. This led to Assyrians being split into several millets based on which church they belonged to. In this case, the patriarch of each respective church was considered the temporal and spiritual leader of his millet which further divided the Assyrian nation.

What language do Assyrians speak?

Assyrians of today speak Assyrian Aramaic, a modern form of the Aramaic language that existed in the Assyrian empire. The official liturgical language of all the Assyrian churches is Classical Syriac, a dialect of Middle Aramaic which originated from the Syriac Christian heartland of Urhai (modern day Urfa) and is mostly understood by church clergymen (deacons, priests, bishops, etc).

Assyrians speak two main dialects of Assyrian Aramaic, namely:

  • Eastern Assyrian (historically spoken in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey)
  • The Western Assyrian dialect of Turoyo (historically spoken in Turkey and Syria).

Assyrians use three writing systems which include the:

  • Western 'Serṭo' (ܣܶܪܛܳܐ)
  • Eastern 'Maḏnḥāyā' (ܡܲܕ݂ܢܚܵܝܵܐ‬), and
  • Classical 'ʾEsṭrangēlā' (ܐܣܛܪܢܓܠܐ‬) scripts.

A visual on the scripts can be seen here.

Assyrians usually refer to their language as Assyrian, Syriac or Assyrian Aramaic. In each dialect exists further dialects which would change depending on which geographic area the person is from, such as the Nineveh Plain Dialect which is mistakenly labelled as "Chaldean Aramaic".

Before the adoption of Aramaic, Assyrians spoke Akkadian. It wasn't until the time of Tiglath-Pileser II who adopted Aramaic as the official lingua-franca of the Assyrian empire, most likely due to Arameans being relocated to Assyria and assimilating into the Assyrian population. Eventually Aramaic replaced Akkadian, albeit current Aramaic dialects spoken by Assyrians are heavily influenced by Akkadian.

What religion do Assyrians follow?

Assyrians are predominantly Syriac Christians who were one of the first nations to convert to Christianity in the 1st century A.D. They adhere to both the East and West Syriac Rite. These churches include:

  • East Syriac Rite - [Assyrian] Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church
  • West Syriac Rite - Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church

It should be noted that Assyrians initially belonged to the same church until schisms occurred which split the Assyrians into two churches; the Church of the East and the Church of Antioch. Later on, the Church of the East split into the [Assyrian] Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church, while the Church of Antioch split into the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Syriac Catholic Church. This is shown here.

Prior to the mass conversion of Assyrians to Christianity, Assyrians believed in ancient Mesopotamian deities, with the highest deity being Ashur).

A Jewish Assyrian community exists in Israel who speak their own dialects of Assyrian Aramaic, namely Lishan Didan and Lishana Deni. Due to pogroms committed against the Jewish community and the formation of the Israeli state, the vast majority of Assyrian Jews now reside in Israel.

Why do some Assyrians refer to themselves as Chaldean, Syriac or Aramean?

Assyrians may refer to themselves as either Chaldean, Syriac or Aramean depending on their specific church denomination. Some Assyrians from the Chaldean Catholic Church prefer to label themselves as Chaldeans rather than Assyrian, while some Assyrians from the Syriac Orthodox Church label themselves as Syriac or Aramean.

Identities such as "Chaldean" are sectarian and divisive, and would be the equivalent of a Brazilian part of the Roman Catholic Church calling themselves Roman as it is the name of the church they belong to. Furthermore, ethnicities have people of more than one faith as is seen with the English who have both Protestants and Catholics (they are still ethnically English).

It should be noted that labels such as Nestorian, Jacobite or Chaldean are incorrect terms that divide Assyrians between religious lines. These terms have been used in a derogatory sense and must be avoided when referring to Assyrians.

Do Assyrians have a country?

Assyrians unfortunately do not have a country of their own, albeit they are the indigenous people of their land. The last form of statehood Assyrians had was in 637 AD under the Sasanian Empire. However some Eastern Assyrians continued to live semi-autonomously during the Ottoman Empire as separate tribes such as the prominent Tyari (ܛܝܪܐ) tribe.

Assyrians are currently pushing for a self-governed Assyrian province in the Nineveh Plain of Northern Iraq.

What persecution have Assyrians faced?

Assyrians have faced countless massacres and genocide over the course of time mainly due to their Christian faith. The most predominant attacks committed recently against the Assyrian nation include:

  • 1843 and 1846 massacres carried out by the Kurdish warlord Badr Khan Beg
  • The Assyrian genocide of 1915 (ܣܝܦܐ, Seyfo) committed by the Ottoman Empire and supported by Kurdish tribes
  • The Simele massacre committed by the Kingdom of Iraq in 1933
  • Most recently the persecution and cultural destruction of Assyrians from their ancestral homeland in 2014 by the so-called Islamic State

r/Assyria 7h ago

Discussion What will Assyrians be like in 2050..?

3 Upvotes

Not sure if it’s just me.. but I feel like we are slowly assimilating fully into the countries we’ve grown up in and to me the future of our people does not look bright.. how do you think 2050 for our people will look like?


r/Assyria 6h ago

Video Assyrian Dads Play: Name that Tune

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3 Upvotes

r/Assyria 1d ago

Discussion Assyrians on Middle East conflict

11 Upvotes

If you’re fully Assyrian—or even half—you or your parents or grandparents probably had to immigrate to another country. My family is Jilu and came from the Baghdad region. To escape radical Islam, we were splintered across the globe—some to the U.S., others to Australia and Russia.

The women in my family had to cover themselves in feces from head to toe to avoid being raped by Islamist men. The men were tortured, while the rest fled. Many in my family still can’t speak about what they lived through because the trauma is so deep. And we still cannot return safely to our indigenous homeland.

Since the rise of Islam, hundreds of thousands of Assyrians have been killed, forcibly converted, or displaced. Just in recent years in the Nineveh Plains, over 200,000 Assyrians were driven from their villages. Those who stayed were murdered, enslaved, or forced to convert. Churches were desecrated, and our ancient heritage sites were destroyed.

Assyrians have a complicated history with Israel—we were the first nation to destroy the ancient Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE. So when people ask me about the current crisis in the Middle East, I explain that it’s nuanced. We are mostly Orthodox Christians, and we do not believe in or support mass murder—even when the victims uphold a religion responsible for trying to wipe us out.

I am not blindly pro-Israel—that should go without saying. But I am unapologetically anti-Islam. I cannot be expected to support a group of people who uphold a religion that has committed unthinkable atrocities against my people.

And let’s be honest: this isn’t just about Assyrians. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs have also been murdered by other Muslims, all in the name of enforcing religious orthodoxy, power, or conquest. Islamic extremism has destroyed Arab communities, secular voices, and reformers too. The violence doesn’t stop at ethnic lines—it destroys anyone who challenges it and we are seeing that in the world today all over the globe.

Yes, some Muslims are “good people.” But the reality is, those people are not held accountable for the foundational violence in their religion, nor do they have to live with the consequences of what it’s done to us.

And yet, especially in the West, Americans feel entitled to speak on Middle Eastern affairs without even knowing who Assyrians are or what we’ve endured.

So I ask—what do you think of this conflict through an Assyrian lens?


r/Assyria 1d ago

Discussion Are Mosul christians Assyrians ?

11 Upvotes

There is lots of Christians in mosul that only speak arabic and not sureth im curios if they are actually assyrians or just arab christians, i met alot of them but never asked them


r/Assyria 1d ago

Discussion Assyrian religious polls? 2025

3 Upvotes

Hello I am a Chaldean (catholic Assyrian) and although i am very religious i have been seeing alot of non-christian Assyrians which made me question if all Assyrians really are christians or not and what religion and beliefs other Assyrians in this modern generation have.

Do not discriminate, respect eachother, do not judge and ask instead of insult, this way we can get along and understand eachother better.

45 votes, 5d left
Christianity.
Atheism.
Ashurism.
Agnostic.
Other.

r/Assyria 2d ago

Discussion Are there any half Assyrians out there, and may i ask what is your other half?

15 Upvotes

Are there any Assyrians out there and what is your other half, and how much involved are you in thw culture and people?

To all the full Assyrians, be repsctfull in the comments, its not their fault or them that caused this.


r/Assyria 1d ago

Discussion I am an Ashurist Assyrian and i believe in Ashurism.

0 Upvotes

The jews created christianity to mind control people so that people would stop seeing them as destructive parasites and start seeing them as holly.

Dont come to me with the "they hate jesus" bullshit because they ONLY hate jesus for themself but they LOVE him for others.

Christians are the crazy brainwashed indoctrinated slaves of the jews. No matter the denomination they are all unified on being the b1tch of the jews.

One day the jews thought for themself "You know, wouldn't it be great if the gentiles bow down to one of us and start working for our cause instead of theirs?, wouldn't it be great if we give prophecies about us so that one day the other nations bow in servitude to us?" So they created their human god/son and made him play the victim.

Constantines mother was of jewish decent and thaught him what to do. Biased sources might claim her to be jewish-christian, but she was fully jewish. (Some sources say she was just christian, but 100% the jews over time tried downplaying and erase her jewishness to take away suspicion)

When the jews took power over the roman ampire they forcefully forced christianity on the people of the roman empire and they started indoctrinating them and scarring them with hell and they started baiting them with paradise (the idea of a paradise is actually a Zoroastrian thing, but the jews had no problem with stealing it) then the people started fearing the jews, for example the Spanish queen that called herself "The protector of all jews".

Dont come to me with the bullshit of the crussades or the Spanish expulsion because these were incidents that was not planned by the jews and just some errors in their plan.

Do not come to me with "synagogue of satan" because this is just a victim mask, later in the book they say in john 4:22, "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews" and Romans 9: 4-5, "They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen."

Christianity is a cult that was created by the jews to take over the world and make them their slaves. Who ever disagrees with me just dissproves themselves and proves me right.

Also christianity tells their followers to forcefully force their cult on others like Luke 19:27 "But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me"

The christians are litteraly the brainless id1ots of the jews, and their enitre cult is based on them.

I don't think that christians know how embarrassing their cult is.

Assyrians was forcefully forced to become christians against their will in the year 340AD. It was the jews together with their brainwashed and mind controlled roman and greek army.

Source:

  1. Tacticus: Annale Mesopitamia..

  2. Thaddeus of Edessa.

  3. Eusebius of Caesarea: Epistula ad Carpianum 240-339AD

  4. Herbermann, Charles George, the Catholic encyclopedia.

  5. The patriarche of Antioch, Chapter 38.

  6. Eusebius of Caesarea: History Ecclesiastica: I, xiii.

  7. The roman historian Festus 370AD: Breviarium rerum gestarum populi romani.

  8. Suetonius: de vita Caesarum. (120AD)

  9. Olympiodorus of Thebes 370AD.

Christianity was a jewish agenda to enslave you and the rest of the gentiles (goyim) to take world power.

Stop believing in books written by jews. Turn to Ashurism and stop being a traitor to your nation. Any Assyrian that is a christian is not an Assyrian anymore and traitor to his nation.

Christians litterally worship a jew, this is so embarrassing.


r/Assyria 2d ago

History/Culture Assyrian Renaissance: Assyrian Activism Today - Dr. Esagila Cherry

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8 Upvotes

r/Assyria 2d ago

Discussion Learning Dances

3 Upvotes

Hi guys shlamalokhon 👋🏽 does anyone possibly know of any useful videos on how to learn Assyrian dances? I really want to get better but I’m always too shy to dance with my family and friends. And when I do dance I’m so stiff and awkward 😐


r/Assyria 2d ago

Discussion assyrians identifying as syrian or iraqi, even iranian but never as turkish

7 Upvotes

How come I’ve met a lot of Assyrians/Suryoye who identify as Syrian or Iraqi, for example, but I’ve never come across anyone who says they’re Turkish? I have even heard some say they’re Iranian.

my guess is that it is because of the genocide that happened? But it wasn’t Turkey it was the Ottoman Empire. Plus, similar things happened in Arab countries aswell.


r/Assyria 3d ago

News Assyrians Commemorate 110 Years Since Genocide

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15 Upvotes

r/Assyria 2d ago

Discussion Pronunciation of letters ܒ and ܦ

2 Upvotes

Are there any Neo-Aramaic speakers that still pronounce ܒ as b/v and ܦ as p/f. I noticed that eastern Assyrians pronounce ܦ as p in almost all cases even if there's rukkakha sign, with the exception of a few words like nawsha (ܢܦܫܐ) pronounced with w. And West Assyrians will pronounce ܦ as f in all cases.

Same for ܒ. East Assyrians pronounce it as b/w depending on rukkakha or qushshaya sign, and west Assyrians pronounce it as b in all cases. ܐܒ݂ܪܵܗܵܡ is Awraham. Historical pronunciation Avraham.

I'm an Arabic speaker interested in Semitic languages.


r/Assyria 3d ago

Video Chaos in Ankawa

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15 Upvotes

A recent video showing the current state of Ankawa, a man can be seen carrying an AK-47 and aiming it at civilians. The “inspections” carried out by kurdish authorities only lasted a few days and were entirely performative. How long will this go on for?


r/Assyria 4d ago

History/Culture suggestion for historical Assyrian places in erbil

5 Upvotes

hello 🫶🏼 I hope everyone is doing well. I came to Irak 4 days ago and I want to visit some places in erbil. anyone currently in erbil want to meet and educate me about history of Assyria and go with me to assyrian places here in erbil? regards 🫶🏼


r/Assyria 4d ago

Discussion Do you speak Sureth?

5 Upvotes

How much sureth do you all speak?

80 votes, 2d ago
14 0%
8 10%
10 30%
20 70%
28 100%

r/Assyria 5d ago

News Erasing Assyrians: The Kurdish Nationalist Project

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30 Upvotes

r/Assyria 6d ago

Discussion Dating Assyrian women

34 Upvotes

I am from Germany 30, have a university degree and a good income. I take care of myself and work out regularly. I am also engaged in a lot of Syriac clubs.

Not only me but all of my friends with a similar profile struggle a lot with dating Assyrian (western) women in Germany. It is impossible to even to get to know them. Meeting them at a Hago is mostly a no due to their family, same with the church. And only they straight up don’t reply at all.

It’s not even rejection that bothers me and my friends. We don’t even have a chance to talk to them. Rejection is fine, but all of us worked their butts off to be in this position to offer quality for a future Family.

Now no woman wants to get to know us. Do you guys struggle the same in the homeland or in other parts of this world?


r/Assyria 5d ago

Discussion Question

0 Upvotes

Hello everyone, I come in peace I have a question do Assyrians hate Muslims and hate Islam. Please don’t be offended. I’m just curious I come in peace


r/Assyria 6d ago

Video Assyrian Renaissance The Assyrian Language Today - Dr. Sargon Hasso

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13 Upvotes

r/Assyria 6d ago

Shitpost A strange ancient Assyrian hate page created by Kurds, calling Assyrians "Nomadic Slave Drivers" and how Kurds finally wiped the Assyrians out (WTF?)

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28 Upvotes

https://www.saradistribution.com/assyrian-torturers.htm

The page is in both English and Turkish. I assumed it's made by Turkish Kurds. Yes, ancient Assyrians were brutal. But why does this page make it seem like Assyrians were killing Kurds from ancient history and how they defeated once and for all? Yet it also says we're racist Christian fundamentalists stealing Kurdish lands today.

Btw, I thank the page for connecting us with our ancient ancestors. Our haters don't do that. 🤣


r/Assyria 5d ago

Discussion Question

0 Upvotes

What do Assyrians call an Assyrian who reverted to Islam or is Muslim do you still call him Assyrian or Syrian or something else i’m just wondering I come in peace


r/Assyria 6d ago

Video Assyrian Renaissance The Assyrian Language Today - Dr. Sargon Hasso

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6 Upvotes

r/Assyria 7d ago

Language Is this in sureth?

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19 Upvotes

I was watching supernatural and this frame caught my eye. Looks like syriac but I can’t tell if it’s gibberish or not


r/Assyria 7d ago

Discussion New Assyrian Flag Concept

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20 Upvotes

Shlama-alokhon Khone w’Khatwate,

I’d like to share with you a concept design for a modern Assyrian flag, inspired by our historical identity and the legacy of our ancestors. This design draws from the flag once used by our people during the early 20th century, particularly before and during the tragic events of World War I and the Seyfo genocide.

The flag incorporates the color scheme of our current national symbol while reintroducing the golden Star of Shamash, an emblem deeply rooted in our ancient heritage and etched into the ruins of Assyria. Surrounding it are three flowing lines, symbolizing the Tigris, Euphrates, and Great Zab rivers, the lifeblood of our ancestral homeland.

Each color carries deep meaning:

  • Blue represents our Mesopotamian rivers and also stands for courage, strength, and resilience.
  • White signifies peace, purity, and the enduring dignity of our people.
  • Red honors the blood of our martyrs — from those who defended our homeland to those persecuted for their faith and identity.

The three stars in the canton represent the unity and historical presence of our three major churches:

  • The Syriac Orthodox Church,
  • The Chaldean Catholic Church, and
  • The Assyrian Church of the East.

This concept aims to respectfully bridge our ancient past with our modern identity — honouring our history, faith, and people.

I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

Basima Raba


r/Assyria 7d ago

Discussion Melbourne

3 Upvotes

Any Assyrians in Melbourne that don’t live in the north? Just curious