Assyrian homeland

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Assyria
ܐܬܘܪ (
Classical Syriac
)

Āṯōr
Flag of Assyria
Flag
Star of Shamash of Assyria
Star of Shamash
Ethnic groups
Assyrian people (historical majority)
Religion
Syriac Christianity
Demonym(s)Assyrian
Syrian, Syriac (historically)
Today part of Iraq (Mesopotamia)
 Iran (margin in western Urmia Plain)
 Syria (Mesopotamia)
 Turkey (Mesopotamia)

The Assyrian homeland, Assyria (

Classical Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, romanized: Bêth Nahrin), refers to the homeland of the Assyrian people within which Assyrian civilisation developed, located in their indigenous Upper Mesopotamia. The territory that forms the Assyrian homeland is, similarly to the rest of Mesopotamia, currently divided between present-day Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria.[3] In Iran, the Urmia Plain forms a thin margin of the ancestral Assyrian homeland in the north-west, and the only section of the Assyrian homeland beyond the Mesopotamian region. The majority of Assyrians in Iran currently reside in the capital city, Tehran.[4]

The Assyrians are indigenous Mesopotamians, descended from the Akkadians and Sumerians, who developed independent civilisation in the city of Assur on the eastern border of northern Mesopotamia. The territory that would encompass the Assyrian homeland however was divided through the centre by the Tigris River, with their indigenous Mesopotamia on the west and western margins of the Urmia Plains, which they occupied in 2000 BCE prior to the arrival of the modern Iranians, to the east. In modern times, Assyrians largely only recognise Assyrian towns and cities immediately neighbouring the Tigris to the east as their indigenous territory in addition to Mesopotamia,[5][6] with the homeland only expanding beyond the borders due to the major centres of Assyrian civilisation, such as the cities of Nineveh, Assur and Nimrud, being built on the banks of the Tigris itself.

Modern Assyrians are predominantly Christian, mostly adhering to the East and West Syriac liturgical rites of Christianity.[7] They speak Neo-Aramaic languages, most common being Suret and Turoyo.[8]

History

Ancient period

King Ashurnasirpal II of the Assyrian Empire meets a high official during a review of soldiers and war prisoners. He is accompanied by a parasol-bearer and is watched over by a winged deity (Ashur). He holds a bow and a pair of raised arrows, symbolising victory in battle. From the North-West Palace at Nimrud, Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), about 865-860 BC

The city of Aššur and Nineveh (modern-day Mosul), which was the oldest and largest city of the ancient Assyrian empire,[9] 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.[10]

Assyrians are eastern

Persian and Roman periods, and survived through to the present day. The Syriac language evolved in Achaemenid Assyria during the 5th century BC.[11][12]

During the Assyrian period

Neo-Assyrian kingdoms in Assyria, which also included Adiabene, Osroene, Assur and Beth Garmai.[13][14]

Early Christian period

Rabban Hormizd Monastery, Alqosh, Nineveh, Iraq.
Mar Mattai Monastery in Assyrian village Merki, Nineveh, Iraq

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.[15]

The first division between

metropolitanate of Ḥadyab (Erbil).[16]

After the

Middle Ages

Arabic
: الجزيرة "the island")
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

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.[18][19]

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,

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.[22]

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, Ishoʿyahb (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",[23][24][25][26] while a member of the "Eliya line" family is one of the patriarchs of the Chaldean Catholic Church.

West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
.

For many centuries, from at least the time of

Aramaic language and was still the normal name in the nineteenth century.[28][29][30] 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,[31] 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".[32][33][34] 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".[35] Until the second half of the 19th century the term "Chaldean" continued in general use for East Syriac Christians, whether "Nestorian" or Catholic:[36][37][38][39] it was the West Syriacs who were reported as claiming descent from Asshur, the second son of Shem.[40]

Early modern period

al-Mamun.[41] Sinjar boasted a famous Assyrian cathedral in the 8th century.[42]

Syria and Upper Mesopotamia became part of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, following the conquests of Suleiman the Magnificent.[43]

Modern period

Traditional Christian Ceremony of "Oshana"

During World War I the Assyrians suffered the

Syrian Arab Republic in 1944.[44][45][46][47]

Assyrians faced reprisals under the

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.[48]

The

ISIS invasion of Iraq in 2014 and the subsequent Fall of Mosul[49]

A Chaldean Catholic church in Tesqopa

In addition to the Assyrian population, an

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.[51]

Attacks on Christians

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.[52]

As attacks on Christians increased in

In August 2014 nearly all of the non-Sunni inhabitants of the southern regions of the Plains, which include

Kalhu (Nimrud, Assur, Dur-Sharrukin and Hatra).[58][59] 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.[60]

Soon after the beginning of the

Battle of Mosul Iraqi troops advanced on Tel Keppe, but the fighting continued into 2017.[61][62] Iraqi forces recaptured the town from ISIS on 19 January 2017.[52]

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

Climate data for Tel Keppe
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 12
(54)
14
(57)
20
(68)
26
(79)
34
(93)
38
(100)
43
(109)
40
(104)
38
(100)
30
(86)
20
(68)
14
(57)
27
(81)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 2
(36)
4
(39)
8
(46)
11
(52)
16
(61)
21
(70)
25
(77)
24
(75)
20
(68)
14
(57)
6
(43)
4
(39)
13
(55)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 39
(1.5)
69
(2.7)
51
(2.0)
9
(0.4)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
6
(0.2)
36
(1.4)
60
(2.4)
270
(10.6)
Average precipitation days 10 10 11 9 0 0 0 0 0 5 8 12 65
Source: World Weather Online (2000-2012)[64]
Climate data for Zakho
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 10.2
(50.4)
12.2
(54.0)
16.5
(61.7)
21.8
(71.2)
29.1
(84.4)
36.2
(97.2)
40.4
(104.7)
40.0
(104.0)
35.7
(96.3)
27.9
(82.2)
19.4
(66.9)
12.3
(54.1)
25.1
(77.3)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 1.9
(35.4)
3.1
(37.6)
6.1
(43.0)
10.1
(50.2)
15.0
(59.0)
20.1
(68.2)
23.7
(74.7)
23.2
(73.8)
19.2
(66.6)
13.7
(56.7)
8.4
(47.1)
3.9
(39.0)
12.4
(54.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 144
(5.7)
136
(5.4)
129
(5.1)
109
(4.3)
43
(1.7)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
1
(0.0)
27
(1.1)
83
(3.3)
127
(5.0)
799
(31.6)
Source: [65]

Demographics

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

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.[73]

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.[74] 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.[1]

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.[75][76]

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."[77][78]

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.

UN Security Council for the creation of an Assyrian self-administered province in the Nineveh Plain.[80]

Between the 28th-30 June 2017, a conference was held in Brussels dubbed, The Future for Christians in Iraq.[81] 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.[82]

See also

References

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External links