ASSYRIAN
HOMELAND
Assyria
/ Atur :
![](assyrianhomeland/640px-Assyria_World_War_1_relief_English.png)
Assyrian
borders in red, as proposed during World War I
Language
: Neo-Aramaic
and also Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish and Persian.
Location : Upper
Mesopotamia, including parts of northern Iraq, southeastern Anatolia,
northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran.
States : Iraq,
Iran, Syria, Turkey
The
Assyrian homeland or Assyria (Romanized: Atur) refers to areas inhabited
by Assyrians. The areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts
of present-day Iraq, Turkey, Iran and more recently Syria as well.
Moreover, the area that had the greatest concentration of Assyrians
in the world until recently is located in the Assyrian Triangle.
In
Iran, the Urmia Plain forms part of the Assyrian homeland, although
much of the Urmia Plain is inhabited by Azerbaijanis. However, nowadays
the majority of Assyrians in Iran live in Tehran.
Assyrians
are predominantly Christian, mostly adhering to the East and West
Syrian liturgical rites of Christianity. They speak Neo-Aramaic
languages, most common being; Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic
and Turoyo.
History
:
Ancient period :
![](assyrianhomeland/640px-Transport_of_cedar_Dur_Sharrukin.jpg)
Relief
from Assyrian capital of Dur Sharrukin, showing transport of Lebanese
cedar (8th century BC)
The city of Aššur and Nineveh (modern day Mosul), which
was the oldest and largest city of the ancient Assyrian empire,
together with a number of other Assyrian cities, seem to have been
established by 2600 BC. However it is likely that they were initially
Sumerian-dominated administrative centres. In the late 26th century
BC, Eannatum of Lagash, then the dominant Sumerian ruler in Mesopotamia,
mentions "smiting Subartu" (Subartu being the Sumerian
name for Assyria). Similarly, in c. the early 25th century BC, Lugal-Anne-Mundu
the king of the Sumerian state of Adab lists Subartu as paying tribute
to him.
Assyrians
are eastern Aramaic-speaking, descending from pre-Islamic inhabitants
of Upper Mesopotamia. The Old Aramaic language was adopted by the
population of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from around the 8th century
BC, and these eastern dialects remained in wide use throughout Upper
Mesopotamia during the Persian and Roman periods, and survived through
to the present day. The Syriac language evolved in Achaemenid Assyria
during the 5th century BC.
During
the Assyrian period Duhok was named Nohadra (and also Bit Nuhadra'
or Naarda), where, during the Parthian-Sassanid rule in Assyria
(c.160 BC to 250 AD) as Beth Nuhadra, gained semi-independence as
one of a patchwork of Neo-Assyrian kingdoms in Assyria, which also
included Adiabene, Osroene, Assur and Beth Garmai.
Early
Christian period :
![](assyrianhomeland/Rabban_Hurmizd.jpg)
Rabban Hormizd Monastery
![](assyrianhomeland/640px-Mor-mattai.png)
Mar
Mattai Monastery in Assyrian village Merki
Syriac Christianity took hold amongst the Assyrians between the
1st and 3rd centuries AD with the founding in Assyria of the Church
of the East together with Syriac literature.
The
first division between Syriac Christians occurred in the 5th century,
when Upper Mesopotamian based Assyrian Christians of the Sassanid
Persian Empire were separated from those in The Levant over the
Nestorian Schism. This split owed just as much to the politics of
the day as it did to theological orthodoxy. Ctesiphon, which was
at the time the Sassanid capital, eventually became the capital
of the Church of the East. During the Christian era Nuhadra became
an eparchy within the Assyrian Church of the East metropolitanate
of Hadyab (Erbil).
After
the Council of Chalcedon in 451, many Syriac Christians within the
Roman Empire rebelled against its decisions. The Patriarchate of
Antioch was then divided between a Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian
communion. The Chalcedonians were often labelled 'Melkites' (Emperor's
Party), while their opponents were labelled as Monophysites (those
who believe in the one rather than two natures of Christ) and Jacobites
(after Jacob Baradaeus). The Maronite Church found itself caught
between the two, but claims to have always remained faithful to
the Catholic Church and in communion with the bishop of Rome, the
Pope.
Middle
Ages :
![](assyrianhomeland/640px-Al-Jazira.svg.png)
A
map of the "Jazira"'s provinces in medieval times
![](assyrianhomeland/638px-Mor_Hananyo.jpg)
Mor
Hananyo Monastery, or The Saffron Monastery in the Tur Abdin region
Both Syriac Christianity and the Eastern Aramaic language came under
pressure following the Arab Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia in the
7th century, and Assyrian Christians throughout the Middle Ages
were subjected to Arabizing superstrate influence. The Assyrians
suffered a significant persecution with the religiously motivated
large scale massacres conducted by the Muslim Turco-Mongol ruler
Tamurlane in the 14th century AD. It was from this time that the
ancient city of Assur was abandoned by Assyrians, and Assyrians
were reduced to a minority within their ancient homeland.
Upper
Mesopotamia had an established structure of dioceses by AD 500 following
the introduction of Christianity from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD.
After the fall of the Neo Assyrian Empire by 605 BC Assyria remained
an entity for over 1200 years under Babylonian, Achamaenid Persian,
Seleucid Greek, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid Persian rule. It was
only after the Arab-Islamic conquest of the second half of the 7th
century AD that Assyria as a named region was dissolved.
The
mountainous region of the Assyrian homeland, Barwari, which was
part of the diocese of Beth Nuhadra (current day Dohuk), saw a mass
migration of Nestorians after the fall of Baghdad in 1258 and Timurlane's
invasion from central Iraq. Its Christian inhabitants were little
affected by the Ottoman conquests, however starting from the 19th
century Kurdish Emirs sought to expand their territories at their
expense. In the 1830s Muhammad Rawanduzi, the Emir of Soran, tried
to forcibly add the region to his dominion pillaging many Assyrian
villages. Bedr Khan Beg of Bohtan renewed attacks on the region
in the 1840s, killing tens of thousands of Assyrians in Barwari
and Hakkari before being ultimately defeated by the Ottomans.
In
1552, a schism occurred within the Church of the East: the established
"Eliya line" of patriarchs was opposed by a rival patriarch,
Sulaqa, who initiated what is called the "Shimun line".
He and his early successors entered into communion with the Catholic
Church, but in the course of over a century their link with Rome
grew weak and was openly renounced in 1672, when Shimun XIII Dinkha
adopted a profession of faith that contradicted that of Rome, while
he maintained his independence from the "Eliya line".
Leadership of those who wished to be in communion with Rome passed
to the Archbishop of Amid Joseph I, recognized first by the Turkish
civil authorities (1677) and then by Rome itself (1681). A century
and a half later, in 1830, headship of the Catholics was conferred
on Yohannan Hormizd. Yohannan was a member of the "Eliya line"
family, but he opposed the last of that line to be elected in the
normal way as patriarch, Isho 'yahb (1778–1804), most of whose
followers he won over to communion with Rome, after he himself was
irregularly elected in 1780, as Sulaqa was in 1552. The "Shimun
line" that in 1553 entered communion with Rome and broke it
off in 1672 is now that of the church that in 1976 officially adopted
the name "Assyrian Church of the East", while a member
of the "Eliya line" family is one of the patriarchs of
the Chaldean Catholic Church.
For
many centuries, from at least the time of Jerome (c. 347 –
420), the term "Chaldean" indicated the Aramaic language
and was still the normal name in the nineteenth century. Only in
1445 did it begin to be used to mean Aramaic speakers in communion
with the Catholic Church, on the basis of a decree of the Council
of Florence, which accepted the profession of faith that Timothy,
metropolitan of the Aramaic speakers in Cyprus, made in Aramaic,
and which decreed that "nobody shall in future dare to call
[...] Chaldeans, Nestorians". Previously, when there were as
yet no Catholic Aramaic speakers of Mesopotamian origin, the term
"Chaldean" was applied with explicit reference to their
"Nestorian" religion. Thus Jacques de Vitry wrote of them
in 1220/1 that "they denied that Mary was the Mother of God
and claimed that Christ existed in two persons. They consecrated
leavened bread and used the 'Chaldean' (Syriac) language".
Until the second half of the 19th century. the term "Chaldean"
continued in general use for East Syriac Christians, whether "Nestorian"
or Catholic: it was the West Syriacs who were reported as claiming
descent from Asshur, the second son of Shem.
Early
modern period :
Peutinger's map of the inhabited world known to the Roman geographers
depicts Singara as located west of the Trogoditi. Persi. (Latin:
Troglodytae Persiae, "Persian troglodytes") who inhabited
the territory around Mount Sinjar. By the medieval Arabs, most of
the plain was reckoned as part of the province of Diyar Rabia, the
"abode of the Rabia" tribe. The plain was the site of
the determination of the degree by al-Khwarizmi and other astronomers
during the reign of the caliph al-Mamun. Sinjar boasted a famous
Assyrian cathedral in the 8th century.
Syria
and Upper Mesopotamia became part of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th
century, following the conquests of Suleiman the Magnificent.
Modern
period :
![](assyrianhomeland/Iraqvillagealqosh7.jpg)
Traditional
Christian Ceremony of "Oshana"
During World War I the Assyrians suffered the Assyrian genocide
which reduced their numbers by up to two thirds. Subsequent to this,
they entered the war on the side of the British and Russians. After
World War I, the Assyrian homeland was divided between the British
Mandate of Mesopotamia, which would become the Kingdom of Iraq in
1932, and the French Mandate of Syria which would become the Syrian
Arab Republic in 1944.
Assyrians
faced reprisals under the Hashemite monarchy for co-operating with
the British during the years after World War I, and many fled to
the West. The Patriarch Shimun XXI Eshai, though born into the line
of Patriarchs at Qochanis, was educated in Britain. For a time he
sought a homeland for the Assyrians in Iraq but was forced to take
refuge in Cyprus in 1933, later moving to Chicago, Illinois, and
finally settling near San Francisco, California.
The
Chaldean Christian community was less numerous [citation needed]
and vociferous at the time of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia,
and did not play a major role in the British rule of the country.
However, with the exodus of Assyrian Church of the East members,
the Chaldean Catholic Church became the largest non-Muslim religious
denomination in Iraq, and some Assyrian Catholics later rose to
power in the Ba'ath Party government, the most prominent being Deputy
Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. The Assyrians of Dohuk boast one of the
largest churches in the region named the Mar Marsi Cathedral, and
is the center of an Eparchy. Tens of thousands of Yazidi and Assyrian
Christian refugees live in the city as well due to the ISIS invasion
of Iraq in 2014 and the subsequent Fall of Mosul.
![](assyrianhomeland/Church_in_Tesqopa.jpg)
A
Chaldean church in Tesqopa
In addition to the Assyrian population, an Aramaic speaking Jewish
population existed in the region for thousands of years, living
mainly in Barwari, Zakho and Alqosh. However, all of the Barwari
Jews either left or were exiled to Israel shortly after its independence
in 1947. The region was heavily affected by the Kurdish uprisings
during the 1950s and 60s and was largely depopulated during the
Al-Anfal campaign in the 1980s, although some of its population
later returned and their homes were subsequently rebuilt. Assur,
which is in the Saladin Governorate, was put on UNESCO's List of
World Heritage in danger in 2003, at which time the site was threatened
by a looming large-scale dam project that would have submerged the
ancient archaeological site.
Attacks
on Christians :
![](assyrianhomeland/Iraqvillagebaghdeda.jpg)
The
Assyrian city of Bakhdida, in the Nineveh Plains
Following the concerted attacks on Assyrian Christians in Iraq,
especially highlighted by the Sunday, August 1, 2004 simultaneous
bombing of six Churches (Baghdad and Mosul) and subsequent bombing
of nearly thirty other churches throughout the country, Assyrian
leadership, internally and externally, began to regard the Nineveh
Plain as the location where security for Christians may be possible.
Schools especially received much attention in this area and in Kurdish
areas where Assyrian concentrated population lives. In addition,
agriculture and medical clinics received financial help from the
Assyrian diaspora.
As
attacks on Christians increased in Basra, Baghdad, Ramadi and smaller
towns. more families turned northward to the extended family holdings
in the Nineveh Plain. This place of refuge remains underfunded and
gravely lacking in infrastructure to aid the ever-increasing internally
displaced people population. From 2012, it also began receiving
influxes of Assyrians from Syria owing to the civil war there.
In
August 2014 nearly all of the non-Sunni inhabitants of the southern
regions of the Plains, which include Tel Keppe, Bakhdida, Bartella
and Karamlish were driven out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant during the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive. Upon entering the
town, ISIS looted the homes, and removed the crosses and other religious
objects from the churches. The Christian cemetery in the town was
also later destroyed. Assyrian Bronze Age and Iron Age monuments
and archaeological sites, as well as numerous Assyrian churches
and monasteries have been systematically vandalised and destroyed
by ISIL. These include the ruins of Nineveh, Kalhu (Nimrud, Assur,
Dur-Sharrukin and Hatra). ISIL destroyed a 3,000 year-old Ziggurat.
ISIL destroyed Virgin Mary Church, in 2015 St. Markourkas Church
was destroyed and the cemetery was bulldozed.
Soon
after the beginning of the Battle of Mosul Iraqi troops advanced
on Tel Keppe, but the fighting continued into 2017. Iraqi forces
recaptured the town from ISIS on the 19th of January 2017.
Geography
:
Climate :
Owing to its latitude and altitude, the Assyrian homeland is cooler
and much wetter than most of Iraq. Most areas in the region fall
within the Mediterranean climate zone (Csa), with areas to the southwest
being semi-arid (BSh).
Demographics
:
![](assyrianhomeland/640px-Tur_Abdin.svg.png)
Map of Tur Abdin showing Syriac villages and monasteries. Operational
monasteries are indicated by red crosses, and abandoned monasteries
are indicated by orange crosses
Assyrian populations are distributed between the Assyrian homeland
and the Assyrian diaspora. There are no official statistics, and
estimates vary greatly, between less than one million in the Assyrian
homeland, and 3.3 million with the diaspora included, mostly due
to the uncertainty of the number of Assyrians in Iraq and Syria.
Since the 2003 Iraq War, Iraqi Assyrians have been displaced into
Syria in significant but unknown numbers. Since the Syrian Civil
War began in 2011, Syrian Assyrians have been displaced into Turkey
in significant but unknown numbers. The indigenous Assyrian homeland
areas are "part of today's northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey,
northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria". The Assyrian communities
that are still left in the Assyrian homeland are in Syria (400,000),
Iraq (300,000), Iran (20,000), and Turkey (15,000–25,100).
Most of the Assyrians living in Syria today, in the Al Hasakah Governorate
in villages along the Khabur river, descend from refugees that arrived
there after the Assyrian genocide and Simele massacre of the 1910s
and 30s. Christian communities of Oriental Orthodox Syriacs lived
in Tur Abdin, an area in Southeastern Turkey, Nestorian Assyrians
lived in the Hakkari Mountains, which straddles the border of northern
Iraq and Southern Turkey, as well as the Urmia Plain, an area located
on the western bank of Lake Urmia, and Chaldean and Syriac Catholics
lived in the Nineveh Plains, an area located in Northern Iraq.
More
than half of Iraqi Christians have fled to neighboring countries
since the start of the Iraq War, and many have not returned, although
a number are migrating back to the traditional Assyrian homeland
in the Kurdish Autonomous region. Most Assyrians nowadays live in
northern Iraq, with the community in Northern (Turkish) Hakkari
being completely decimated, and the ones in Tur Abdin and Urmia
Plain are largely depopulated.
Creation
of an Assyrian autonomous province :
The Assyrian-inhabited towns and villages on the Nineveh Plain form
a concentration of those belonging to Syriac Christian traditions,
and since this area is the ancient home of the Assyrian empire through
which the Assyrian people trace their cultural heritage, the Nineveh
Plain is the area on which an effort to form an autonomous Assyrian
entity has become concentrated. There have been calls by some politicians
inside and outside Iraq to create an autonomous region for Assyrian
Christians in this area.
In
the Transitional Administrative Law adopted in March 2004 in Baghdad,
not only were provisions made for the preservation of Assyrian culture
through education and media, but a provision for an administrative
unit also was accepted. Article 125 in Iraq's Constitution states
that: "This Constitution shall guarantee the administrative,
political, cultural, and educational rights of the various nationalities,
such as Turkomen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and all other constituents,
and this shall be regulated by law." Since the towns and villages
on the Nineveh Plain form a concentration of those belonging to
Syriac Christian traditions, and since this area is the ancient
home of the Assyrian empire through which these people trace their
cultural heritage, the Nineveh Plain is the area on which the effort
to form an autonomous Assyrian entity have become concentrated.
On
January 21, 2014, the Iraqi government had declared that Nineveh
Plains would become a new province, which would serve as a safe
haven for Assyrians. After the liberation of the Nineveh Plain from
ISIL between 2016/17, all Assyrian political parties called on the
European Union and UN Security Council for the creation of an Assyrian
self-administered province in the Nineveh Plain.
Between
the 28th-30 June 2017, a conference was held in Brussels dubbed,
The Future for Christians in Iraq. The conference was organised
by the European People's Party and had participants extending from
Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac organizations, including representatives
from the Iraqi government and the KRG. The conference was boycotted
by the Assyrian Democratic Movement, Sons of Mesopotamia, Assyrian
Patriotic Party, Chaldean Catholic Church and Assyrian Church of
the East. A position paper was signed by the remaining political
organizations involved.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Assyrian_homeland