page_title: Sectarianism and minorities in the Syrian Civil War
section_title: Assyrians
hierarchical_section_title: Sectarianism and minorities in the Syrian Civil War / Christians / Assyrians
caption_attribution_description: English: Kurds, Assyrians, and Arabs demonstrate against the government in the city of Qamishli, northeastern Syria.
context_page_description: The Syrian Civil War is an intensely sectarian conflict. The focus of the conflict has been identified by some as a ruling minority Alawite government and allied Shi'a governments such as Iran, pitted against the country's Sunni Muslim majority who are aligned with the Syrian opposition and their Sunni Turkish and Persian Gulf state backers. Others, such as the blogger Neil Clarke, identify it as the secular Syrian government, made up of all religious groups pitted against the Islamist opposition. However, Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the Syrian Arab Army and many hold high governmental positions, while Alawites and members of almost every minority have also been active on the rebel side.
  The conflict had drawn in other ethno-religious minorities, including Armenians, Assyrians, Druze, Palestinians, Kurds, Yazidi, Mhallami, Arab Christians, Mandaeans, Turkmens and Greeks.
context_section_description: The Assyrian people, mainly located in the Northeast of Syria (with the bulk of their population in neighbouring northern Iraq, and others in south east Turkey and north west Iran), are ethnically and linguistically distinct from the main group of Syrian Christians, in that unlike the latter, who are of Aramean heritage but largely now Arabic speaking, Assyrians are of ancient Assyrian/Mesopotamian heritage, retain Eastern Aramaic as a spoken tongue, and are often members of the Assyrian Church of the East or Chaldean Catholic Church, as well as the Syriac Orthodox Church.
  Unlike other Christian groups, The Assyrian dominated Christian militias in Syria are primarily allied with anti government Kurdish forces, whose secular attitude and tolerance of the minority has allowed for them both to work well in fighting against ISIS/ISIL, the enemy of both peoples. Some are pro-secularist opposition, with one militia member stating "the [Assad] regime wants us to be puppets, deny our ethnicity and demand an Arab-only state". However, other armed Assyrian groups in al-Hassakah such as Sootoro, ally themselves with the government, and have clashed with Kurdish YPG forces whom they accuse of trying to steal Assyrian lands.
  Assyrian communities, towns and villages have been targeted by Islamist rebels, and Assyrians have taken up arms against such extremists as ISIS, and Assyrians and their militias and political organizations are staunchly anti-government. The Assyrian Democratic Organization is a founding member of the Syrian National Council and have a member of the executive committee of the council. The ADO however have only participated at peaceful demonstrations and have warned against a "surge in the national and sectarian extremism".
  On 15 August 2012, members of the Syriac nationalist Syriac Union Party stormed the Syrian embassy in Stockholm in protest of the Syrian government. A dozen of its members were later detained by Swedish police.
  By October 2012, the Syrian Syriac National Council had been formed. In January 2013, a military wing, the Syrian Syriac Military council, was formed, based in Al-Hasakah Governorate, home to a large Assyrian Christian population.
  Many Assyrian Christians found refuge in the Tur Abdin region in southern Turkey as fighting reached north-eastern Syrian by spring 2013. Many of them reported to have fled after they were targeted by armed rebels.
  By January 2014, the Syriac Military Council affiliated to the PYD.
  Several fighters killed in clashes prompted by Assyrians' move to set up checkpoints in Qamishli in fear of ISIL.
caption: Demonstrators carry Assyrian flags, Syrian independence flags, Kurdish flags, and flags of Rojava during an anti-government protest in Qamishli, 6 January 2012
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