Assyrians in Syria

The Syriacs ( Arameans, Assyrians ) in Syria live since 2000 BC in the north-eastern half of the country. Parts of the region were an integral part of the actual Assyrian and Neo - Assyrian Empire during ( 911-608 BC) was the entirety of present-day Syrian territory under Assyrian rule.

A total of about 900,000 bis 1.2 million Assyrians / Syrians living in Syria. Particularly in Syria, however, the majority is increasingly assimilated into the Arab population and does not speak the Aramaic languages ​​more ( instead, is now the sole official language of Arabic spoken as a native language ). Settlement focuses on the al -Hasakah Governorate and Homs, as well as the cities of Damascus, Aleppo and Dscharamana. The most common denominations are the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Syrian Catholic Church, Chaldean Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East.

Another influx moved there at the beginning of the French mandate over Syria (from 1920) as refugees from the now Turkish areas north of the current Syria, then 1933 until after the crimes of Assyrians in the massacre of Semile as refugees of the newly independent Iraq.

In 1936, at the height of local uprisings, asked religious and political leaders in the Syrian province of al -Jazeera (now al -Hasakah ) is a province with autonomous status, taking into account their mixed Aramaic / Assyrian, the French authorities, Kurdish, Armenian, Jewish and Arab population - as in the Sanjak of Alexandretta, the Alawitenstaat and the Druze state. This, however, had no other results than that the Arab nationalists in Damascus rejected any balkanization of the future independent of Greater Syria.

After independence in 1946, the Assyrian Democratic Organization was established by the center- left-leaning intellectuals of the Assyrian ethnic group as well as of Christian religious communities in 1957. The Assyrian Democratic Organization is a member of the Syrian National Council. The organization is now banned.

In 2005, the Syrian Christian Unity Party ( Syriac Union Party in Syria ) was founded. This party claims to represent the interests of the Assyrian / Aramean people. In civil war, Syrian Christian Unity Party, the army Syriac Military Council and the police unit Sutoro launched live that control the Assyrian / Aramaic towns, neighborhoods and villages.