Claim: Some Assyrian people speak Western Neo-Aramaic and Central Neo-Aramaic.

Assyrian people , or Syriacs -LRB- see names of Syriac Christians -RRB- , are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East . Some of them self-identify as Chaldeans , or as Arameans . They speak modern Aramaic , whose subdivisions include Northeastern , Central , and Western Neo-Aramaic , as well as another language , dependent on the country of residence . The Assyrians are typically Syriac-speaking Christians who claim descent from Assyria , one of the oldest civilizations in the world , dating back to 2500 BC in ancient Mesopotamia .   The areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts of present-day northern Iraq , southeastern Turkey , northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria . The majority have migrated to other regions of the world , including North America , the Levant , Australia , Europe , Russia and the Caucasus during the past century or so . Emigration was triggered by such events as the Assyrian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire during World War I , the Simele Massacre in Iraq in 1933 , the Iranian Revolution of 1979 , Arab Nationalist Ba'athist policies in Iraq and Syria such as the al-Anfal campaign of Saddam Hussein , and the rise of ISIS and its takeover of most of the Nineveh Plains .   Assyrians are predominantly Christian , mostly adhering to the East and West Syrian liturgical rites of Christianity . The churches that constitute the East Syrian rite include the Assyrian Church of the East , Ancient Church of the East , and Chaldean Catholic Church , whose followers mostly speak the Northeastern branch of East Aramaic . Whereas the churches of the West Syrian rite , the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church , mostly speak the Central and Western branches .   Most recently , the 2003 Iraq War and the Syrian Civil War which began in 2011 have displaced the regional Assyrian community , because its people have faced ethnic and religious persecution at the hands of Islamic extremists . Of the one million or more Iraqis reported by the United Nations to have fled Iraq since the occupation , nearly 40 % were Assyrians even though Assyrians comprised only around 3 % of the pre-war Iraqi demography . According to a 2013 report by a Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council official , it is estimated that only 300,000 Assyrians remain in Iraq . Due to the Syrian Civil War , however , many Iraqis , including Assyrians , have fled back into Iraq , specifically to northern Iraq and the part of the country controlled by the Iraqi government , with ISIS still in control of much of the Assyrian homeland .