Semitic people
Some of those pan-Aramean views were later accepted by other western researchers, who also held that modern "Syrians" are descendants of Arameans. In 1888, British antropologist George T. Bettany (d. 1891) thus noted that "The modern Semitic people occupying Syria are most accurately termed Aramaeans". In 1919, Irish orientalist Edmond Power (d. 1953) pointed to several questions related to "Christian Arameans" in modern Syria, noting that "It is in Northern Mesopotamia and Western Syria that the more ancient Aramean element is best preserved owing to the survival of Christianity in these districts"".