Assyrians

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Related to Assyrians: Babylonians, Hittites, Chaldeans, Assyrian Empire

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Assyrians

Aisor (Aturai, as they call themselves), a people living in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and the United States, and in the USSR and some other European countries. The total population is over 1 million (22,000 in the USSR in 1959). The modern Assyrian (Neo-Syriac) language belongs to the Hamito-Semitic family of languages. Religious Assyrians are Christians (mostly Nestorians). Most Assyrians are farmers. In some eastern countries Assyrians retain remnants of the tribal structure. In the USSR, most Assyrians live in cities. They regard themselves as descendants of the ancient Assyrians, and a substantial number of them retain many ancient customs, traditions, and cultural elements.

REFERENCES

Matveev, K. P. (Bar-Mattai), and I. I. Mar-Iukhanna. Assiriiskii vopros vo vremia i posle pervoi mirovoi voiny (1914–1933). Moscow, 1968.
Wigram, W. A. The Assyrians and Their Neighbors. London, 1929.

K. P. MATVEEV

References in periodicals archive ?

"Five years ago today, ISIS made the depths of its depravity clear when it began attacking the Yazidi and Assyrian people of northern Iraq.

Yazidi Genocide: Statement from Premier Kenney

Also, in December 2016, Archbishop of Eastern Iran's Assyrians Marenresay Benyamin underlined that the religious minorities in Iran enjoy complete freedom.

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"As Assyrians and as Christians, we practice our holidays and other activities as normal, without any disturbances," Marwan Shukri, who oversaw northeastern Hassakeh province's system of Assyrian Church-run schools before the war, tells Syria Direct.

Discontent among Assyrians in Syria's northeast

The tight community of Assyrian Christian families who had lived together in this area for generations.

Hollowed out Christian villages leave Syria social fabric torn

Just over a century ago this week, Turkish and Kurdish forces invaded land that the Assyrian people had inhabited since antiquity and began exterminating them.

Was Turkey's Genocide of the Assyrians an Islamist Crime?

During the late 15th century BC Assyria and Arrapha was under the domination of the short-lived Mittani-Hurrian empire, but after the Assyrians overthrew and destroyed the Hurri-Mitanni in the early 14th century BC, the city was again under Assyrian rule.

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To ancient Assyrians, the team writes, these ferocious reptiles probably represented eternal life and served as psychopomps --mythical guides to the afterlife.

Turtles were part of Assyrian burial

He is currently the Secretary General of the World Union for Assyrians, the CEO of a publishing company, Ilona, and CEO of an architectural company, Magan.

Islamic Republic seizes Chaldean Catholic Church

The Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights Saturday reported the Islamic State group freed 37 Assyrian Christians who were among 220 people kidnapped in Syria more than eight months ago, according to (http://news.yahoo.com/group-frees-37-kidnapped-syrian-christians-135800207.html;) Agence France-Presse .

ISIS Frees 37 Assyrian Christian Hostages

On the one hand, this speech shows how the Assyrians employed psychological warfare against their opponents; on the other hand, its inclusion underlines the conflict between two ideologies--ethical monotheism (championed by Isaiah and Hezekiah) and brutal paganism (represented by Sennacherib and the Rabshakeh).

THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM: PART II: THE ENIGMATIC RABSHAKEH

•The calculated and targeted assassinations of political rivals and members of other parties, notably individuals that belong to Assyrian political parties.

American Mesopotamian Organization: US Government Must Not Directly Arm Iraqi Kurds and Sunni Arab Militias with Heavy Weapons

During a visit to Syria's Diocese of the Assyrian Church of the East in Hasaka on Monday, al-Hilal said that the Syrians are united and committed to national unity, stressing that the Syrians are able to overcome the crisis.