Assyrians are one of the oldest continuously documented ethnic groups in history today. Their presence dates to the initial stages of human civilization and the Amorite and Sumerian periods. Assyrians have contributed immensely to human society, including siege warfare, libraries, early cuneiform, and the sciences.
As war rages in the Gaza Strip and Palestinians perceive the Sykes-Picot Agreement as a turning point that was detrimental to the hampering of a Palestinian state, Assyrians likewise have experienced betrayal. Scars of initial promises, even after genocide and serving proudly for the British in World War Two, Assyrians remain under threat of extinction in their ancestral homeland.
Assyrian History Up Until WWI
Emerging from the Bronze Age Collapse relatively unscathed, the Assyrians rapidly expanded, arguably becoming the first great world power from the Old, Middle, and Neo Assyrian Empires. Reaching the empire’s pinnacle under Ashurbanipal, the Assyrians made grave mistakes, such as overexpansion and internal strikes, allowing their enemies to grow.
The Assyrian Empire fell at the destruction of Nineveh and the Battle of Harran. Still, the Assyrian people continued to endure under various powers, such as the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, and Mongols—even when attempted assimilation occurred.
Assyrian history would become intertwined with Christianity around the 3rd Century AD. Akin to the Armenians, Greeks, Maronites, and Ethiopians, Assyrians saw themselves as followers of Christ and gradually converted to Christianity. Many Assyrian worshippers belong to the Syriac Orthodox Church, while others follow the Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church.
A dark moment in medieval Assyrian history occurred during the rampage of Timur, also known as Tamerlane, who ravaged the region and massacred Assyrians en masse. Under Ottoman rule, Assyrians were initially left alone but would suffer persecution from both Ottoman authorities and Kurdish militias, particularly in the Hamidian Massacres.
Assyrian Genocide, Sykes-Picot, and False Promises by the British Empire
During World War One, the Committee of Union and Progress, also known as the Young Turks, became increasingly paranoid—seeing the remaining Christians in the empire as a “fifth column,” leading to multiple genocides.
Like the Armenian and Greek Genocide, Ottoman forces and Kurdish irregulars targeted Assyrians, known as the Seyfo (sword) Genocide. Close to 3/4ths of the Assyrian population would be killed in gruesome methods—a population decline they have never recovered from to this day.
After the Ottomans capitulated in WWI, the Turkish empire’s domains in the Middle East were partitioned between the British and French, known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Initially having promises of autonomy or even a potential independent state in the geographic region of Mesopotamia, Assyrians were betrayed by the British government, which prioritized puppets in the newly created Iraqi nation to secure their oil interests.
The final phase of the Assyrian Genocide was the Simele Massacre by Kurdish militias and Iraqi troops under the British-backed King Faisal, which ultimately destroyed any hopes of autonomy or a state for the Near East Christians.
Life in a Turbulent Iraq
Iraq remains arguably the most unstable state created in the aftermath of Sykes-Picot. Ethnic tensions, reboots, uprisings, and coups occurred from the 1950s onward.
The rise of the Baathist regime under Saddam Hussein would lead to retaliations against Assyrians. Some of the Baathist-led massacres were directly intended, and some were indirect, such as the Al Anfal Genocide against the Kurds, which also targeted adjacent Assyrian villages in the north.
A significant turning point that would lead to the rapid decline of Assyrians in the Middle East ironically came from the US invasion of Iraq. Initially promising “freedom and democracy,” America achieved a lightning victory against the Baathist army but left a disastrous security situation in the country.
The disbanding of the Iraqi army post-Saddam was a fatal policy of the American occupational forces, as US-led coalition troops had little knowledge of the cultures and customs of the region and provided poor social services during the initial occupation years. Terrorist organizations, such as Al-Qaeda, gained a foothold in Iraq and disproportionately targeted civilians, such as Assyrians frequently.
ISIS would later emerge from the shadows of a weakened Al-Qaeda organization and commit genocide against Yazidis and Assyrians alike, further decreasing their numbers. Both the War on ISIS and the Syrian Civil War did severe damage to the ethnic group’s homelands in Iraq and Syria, which were heavily destroyed in the fiercest fighting.
Scale of ISIS’ Destruction and Current Status of Assyrian Antiquities
Assyrian heritage sites were at the forefront of ISIS’ rampage during the group’s consolidated control of Northern Iraq. Already a hardline Salafist militant organization, the Islamic State saw both Assyrian religious structures and ancient cultural heritage as “heretical.’ From 2014-2017, the terrorist organization conducted the world cultural genocide the world has witnessed in several decades.
Assyrian religious sites, such as the Monastery of Saint Elijah, St Markourkas Church, Sa’a Qadima Church, Church of Saint Ahudemmeh, Mar Behnam Monastery, and the Assyrian Green Church were all destroyed by ISIS across Iraq and Syria.
The militants destroyed former ancient Assyrian capitals, such as Nimrod and Dur-Sharrukin. Ashurbanipal II’s palace in Nimrod was defiled, with all artifacts smashed and blown to pieces. Nimrod and Dur-Sharrukin were former cultural centers of Mesopotamia where the first libraries were founded.
The BBC broadcasting team was the first international team to reveal the scale of ISIS destruction, including satellite images and before and after photography of where ancient deities and artifacts once stood in Nimrod.
ISIS itself filmed the destruction of Assyrian artifacts in not only the ancient cities but also the Mosul Museum as part of its propaganda, psychological, and recruiting efforts. The world with a ghastly mood as the group, armed with sledgehammers and jackhammers, indiscriminately destroyed Assyrian artifacts en masse, destroying antiquities that represented the first modern development of human civilization.
Status of Christian Assyrian Cultural Sites
During the war on ISIS and the group’s defeat, Assyrian heritage and cultural sites continue to endure neglect. A National Geographic article revealed that Peshmerga forces did considerable damage to the ancient city of Dur-Sharrukin when the Kurdish militiamen dug fighting positions in the town. The clashes between the Peshmerga and ISIS would also greatly damage Dur-Sharrukin.
The Iraqi government itself also contributes to the erosion of Assyrian antiquities. In March 2021, private contractors, with orders from the provincial government that answers to Baghdad, were responsible for destroying parts of the ancient Nineveh Wall solely to make room for roadwork. Assyrian officials and their community in Northern Iraq condemned the move, which can be interpreted as a move to continue to intimidate the ethnic group into leaving the country.
Before international laws prohibiting the removal of archaeological items from their historical sites, Assyrian cultural antiquities were lucrative in private sales, as seen with the $31 million purchase at a Christie’s bidding auction. With the exact phrase “supply and demand,’ the more heritage is trafficked and sold on the black market, the more bandits and thieves would be encouraged to sack archaeological sites. According to UNESCO, groups such as ISIS also made lucrative funds through this black-market trade.
A Future Uncertain
To put the rapid decline of Assyrians in Iraq into perspective today, from the 1980s, there were 1.2-1.4 million Assyrians in the country. Today, only 400-500,000 are left, and the number continues to dwindle.
Assyrians are left with not only a degree of self-governance but also little representation in the central government of Baghdad. Only 5 out of the 329 seats in the Iraqi parliament are reserved for Christian minorities, such as Assyrians and Armenians. Furthermore, 11 out of 111 seats in the Iraqi Kurdistan region are only allocated for minorities in the north.
Media coverage of the decline of Assyrians remains minimal, but advocacy groups and some politicians continue to raise the alarm. Former British Labour MP Steven Pound addressed the genocide of Assyrians and introduced a discussion for recognition of Seyfo in the House of Commons in 206.
In the United States, Assyrians have their largest Western diaspora, with various and detrimental organizations that attempt to preserve their culture and customs, such as the Assyrian Aid Society of America, the Assyrian Studies Association, and the Assyrian Policy Institute.
Nevertheless, challenges remain to keep the Assyrian people secure, safeguard cultural artifacts that have been destroyed across the Middle East, and keep their identities from being assimilated and erased by various other dominant ethnic groups in the region.
While the fate of the remaining Assyrians looks uncertain and, at times, challenging, the continuous Near East ethnic group continues to persevere and fight on, even with betrayals, false promises, and turbulence in a tumultuous Middle East.
