A transnational people indigenous to Mesopotamia, with a language, faith and identity that have survived empire, persecution and displacement for thousands of years.
5 Church Traditions
Global Diaspora
Assyrians speak Assyrian Aramaic, with the two predominant dialects being Eastern and Western Assyrian. Assyrians are predominantly Christian, with some identifying as Chaldeans or Syriacs depending on their church denomination. Historically, Assyrians belong to five churches:
Ancient Church of the East
Assyrian Church of the East
Chaldean Catholic Church
Syriac Orthodox Church
Syriac Catholic Church
Assyrians controlled large swathes of land during the ancient Assyrian empires, until the Fall of Nineveh circa 612 BC brought about the demise of the Assyrian Empire. Assyrian rule over Assyria itself continued for centuries afterward under a succession of larger empires.
c. 612 BC
Fall of Nineveh
The Assyrian capital falls, marking the end of the Assyrian Empire as a dominant regional power.
Ancient
In the late 19th century, Assyrians experienced a series of massacres at the hands of Kurdish and Ottoman forces. In 1914, the Ottoman Empire orchestrated a genocide against the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek populations of Anatolia, with the support of Kurdish tribes — an event remembered in contemporary sources as “Seyfo,” or the Assyrian Genocide.
Following the rise of Pan-Arab nationalism in Iraq and Syria, Kemalist policies in Turkey, and the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Assyrians have immigrated en masse to the Western world. This displacement accelerated further with later conflicts across the region.
Invasion of Iraq
Instability following the invasion accelerates Assyrian emigration from Iraq.
ISIS Invasion of Gozarto
The so-called Islamic State’s invasion of northern Iraq and northwestern Syria forces many more Assyrian families to flee.
The AAA’s own history is documented through its committee eras — see who has led the Association since 1969.
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