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Since World War I, the Assyrian diaspora has steadily increased so that there are now more Assyrians living in western countries (including Australia) than in the Middle East. At the turn of the century the Christian population in the Ottoman Empire had numbered about 5,000,000. When the massacres finally ended in 1923, about 20,000 Greeks, 10,000 Armenians and 30,000 Assyrians remained. The Civil War in Lebanon, the coming into power of the Islamic republic of Iran, the Ba'thist dictatorship in Iraq and the present-day unrest in Iraq pushed even more Assyrians on the roads of exile.

Former Soviet Union

History Assyrians, Center for Russian Studies, NUPI - Norwegian Institute of International Affairs

Assyrians came to Russia and the Soviet Union in three main waves: The first wave was after the Treaty of Turkmanchai in 1828, that delineated a border between Russia and Persia. Many Assyrians found themselves suddenly under Russian sovereignty and thousands of relatives crossed the border to join them.

The second wave was a result of the repression and violence during and after WWI.

The third wave came after WWII, when Moscow unsuccessfully tried to establish a satellite state in Iranian Kurdistan. Soviet troops withdrew in 1946, and left the Assyrians exposed to exactly the same kind of retaliation that they had suffered from the Turks 30 years earlier. Again, many Assyrians found refuge in the Soviet Union, this time mainly in the cities.

Soviet power in the thirties repressed the Assyrians' religion and persecuted religious and other leaders.

In recent years, the Assyrians have tended to assimilate with Armenians, but their cultural and ethnic identity, strengthened through centuries of hardships, found new expression under Glasnost.

USSR Census

  • 1897 census: 5,300 "Syrio-Chaldeans" (by language) Youri Bromlei et al., Processus ethniques en U.R.S.S., Editions du Progrès, 1977
  • 1919 refugee status:
8,000 - 7,000 "Assyro-Chaldean" refugees in TbilissiEden Naby, “Les Assyriens d'Union soviétique,” Cahiers du Monde russe, 16/3-4. 1975
2,000 Assyrians in YerevanEden Naby, “Les Assyriens d'Union soviétique,” Cahiers du Monde russe, 16/3-4. 1975
15,000 Assyrians from Hakkari, 10,000 from Urmia and Salmas in the Russian region of Rostov A. Chatelet (Supérieur de la mission catholique de Téhéran), Question assyro-chaldéenne, Quartier général - Bureau de la Marine, Constantinople, 31 août 1919
  • 1926 census: 9,808 Assyrians (Aisor) Eden Naby, “Les Assyriens d'Union soviétique,” Cahiers du Monde russe, 16/3-4. 1975
  • 1970 census: 24,294 Assyrians Eden Naby 1975
  • 1979 census: 25,170 Assyrians Annuaire démographique des Nations-Unies 1983, Département des affaires économiques et sociales internationales, New York, 1985

Russia

Armenia

Georgia

Ukraine

Kazakhstan

Bibliography

Near East

Lebanon

estimates on December 31, 1944, by province (Muhafazat) Albert H. Hourani, Minorities in the Arab World, London: Oxford University Press, 1947
denomination Beyrouth Mount Lebanon North Lebanon South Lebanon Biqa' Total
Syriac Catholics 4,089 275 169 9 442 4,984
Syriac Orthodox 2,070 209 100 22 1,352 3,753
Chaldeans 974 120 1 10 225 1,330

1932 census and further estimates

denomination 1932 census Kenneth C. Bruss, Lebanon - Area and population, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1963 1944 estimates Albert H. Hourani, Minorities in the Arab World, London: Oxford University Press, 1947 1954 estimates Kenneth C. Bruss, Lebanon - Area and population, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1963
Syriac Catholics 2,675 4,984 ..
Chaldeans 528 1,330 ..
Syriac Orthodox 2,574 3,753 4,200
Assyrian "Nestorians" 800 1,200 1,400

Turkey

1914: Asiatic Turkey 863,000M.Y.A . Lilian, Assyrians Of The Van District, 1914

Israel, Palestine, Jordan

The Americas

Argentina

  • August 1919: 2,000 Assyro-Chaldeans refugees, most of all young people Chatelet 1919

Canada

2001 Census: Assyrian - 6,980

United States

Europe

Belgium

Assyrians in Belgium came mostly as refugees from the Turkish towns of Midyat and Mardin in Tur Abdin, most of them are Syriac Orthodox (Süryani), some Chaldean Catholics (Keldani). Their three main settlements are in Brussels (municipalities of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode - where they've got their only elected municipal councilman, Ibrahim Erkan -, Brussels and Etterbeek), Liège and in Mechelen.

France

There are believed to be some 15,000, mainly concentrated in the northern French suburbs of Sarcelles, Gonnesse and Villiers-le-Bel. They are drawn from the same few villages in what is now south west Turkey.

Greece

The first migrants of Assyrians in Greece came in 1934, and settled in the areas of Makronisos (today uninhabited), Keratsini (Pireus), Egaleo and Kalamata.Zinda Magazine - May 10, 1999 - The Assyrian Union of Greece Today, the vast majority of Assyrians live in Peristeri, a suburb of Athens, and they number about 2,000 Ethnologue report for Greece.

Netherlands

Sweden

In the latter part of the 1970s, about 12,000 Syrian Orthodox Assyrians from Lebanon, Turkey and Syria immigrated to Sweden. They considered themselves persecuted for religious reasons but were never acknowledged as refugees. Those who had already lived in Sweden for a longer period were finally granted residence permit for humanitarian reasons.Swedish Minister for Development Co-operation, Migration and Asylum Policy, Migration 2002, June 2002

The dividing line in Sweden between Syrians and Assyrians lies between the religiously defined group: Syrians, who are Syrian Orthodox Christians, and the politically or ethnically determined category: Assyrians, whose members belong to several different Christian beliefs (the majority are of course also Syrian Orthodox Christians) but whose religious affiliation is toned down.Dan Lundberg, Christians from the Middle East, A virtual Assyria

Södertälje in Sweden is often seen as the unofficial Assyrian capital of Europe due to the city's high percentage of Assyrians and the Swedish professional football (soccer) team Assyriska, which played in the top Swedish football league (Allsvenskan) in 2005, is often viewed as a substitute national team by the diaspora and has fans worldwide. The international Suroyo/Suraya TV which broadcast in the Assyrian/Syriac language is also based here.

Since 2005, there is an Assyrian minister in the Swedish government, Ibrahim Baylan.

Pacific

Australia

New Zealand

Homeland Statistics

Iran

1986 Census: 32,000 Country-data.com - Iran - Appendix. Tables

Syria

References

Diasporas | Ethnic groups in the Middle East | Assyrians

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Assyrian diaspora".

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