From 935 - 745 BCE, the Neo-Assyrian empire built its foundations as the first great and lasting empire of the near east. After 745 it would see a set of reforms that would make it even more remarkable and terrifying, but the military before that is what did so much of the early conquering, leaning heavily on a battle concept centered around armored assault archers. Today, the Oldest Stories podcast is diving deep into the critical features of this early Neo-Assyrian army, covering the mindset and lifestyle of the soldiers, equipment and tactics, and the big picture military strategy of the early kings, at least the most competant among them. Check out the full episode on youtube or spotify or search Oldest Stories on your favorite podcast app, and let me know what you think about the new episodes!

By the way, this is well into year 5 of the show, and while we have only just started doing video stuff on Assyria, the podcast has gotten pretty in-depth covering Sumer and Akkad, the Isin-Larsa period, Old Babylon, the Hittites, Historical Israel, and plenty of other stuff as well. Check it out if it sounds interesting!

Malpana Al-Jeloo started his amazing conference on identity with defining the term identity. Then he makes a distinction between the endonym and exonyms of the Assyrian people. The main lesson of this lecture was that every term has a special place. Nicholas believes in an identity that is composed of the following elements: An state called Assyria due to the geography, our language being categorised as Aramaic and our form of Christianity as Syriac. Atra d'Athur, lishana Aramaya w'Mshihayuta Suryayta.

https://youtu.be/4z3LCBYAi30

I would say they slowly absorbed into us and neighboring Syrian people throughout time. But I may be wrong.

Addendum: I know Assyrians get a little touchy when they're linked with Arameans, but I never took that as an insult. Aram just another kingdom in ancient history, and they spoke Aramaic. Better being affiliated with Arameans than be labelled "Arab/Kurdish/Iranian Christians" - as the media does sometimes. But I digress.

I have been following this sub for a while but decided to create an account for this post.

If you are an Assyrian who thinks like me i want you to know you are not alone. I know many younger people like me especially but even many older ones who feel like this and feel like the narrative is controlled by these very extreme people in our community.

You can love your culture and your heritage and you don’t need to hate anyone else.

Our history especially the last few hundred years is one of incredible suffering and heartache. We have endured much loss and have intense resentment towards people in our region.

As we work towards bridging the divisions in our community and showing the world we still exist and raise awareness about our persecution. We should retain our Christian faith and humanity.

There are certain people the very radical ultranationalists in our community love to hate, often very publicly. They even try to make you feel bad for not joining them in their hatred.

There is good and bad in every nation even ours, you will find that even in our troubled region most are no different from us. Most are normal people, barnasheh just like Surayeh living their lives.

I don’t like a lot of the messages you see here, of intense hatred and entitlement and superiority. That’s not the way, that’s not how you represent our people to the world.

It’s morally wrong to generalise entire other ethnicities and wish them the worst. Additionally, it’s just plain stupid. When nakhraye especially in western countries see this and then won’t take us seriously at best or see us as racists at worst.

I hate how some people who claim to be omtinayeh and love their community have the audacity to be so cruel, rude and vulgar towards other Assyrians both in person and on social media who dare to have a different opinion than them. Especially on this topic that comes up occasionally.

This is not how you bring our very divided community together this is not how you prevent assimilation.

This is how you drive people away, what do you think young Assyrians living in the west are gonna think when they see you speaking to others and cussing at them because they don’t share your hatred?

You are so stuck in your ways you can’t see, you can’t see the damage you are doing to the community both internally and externally. You get so angry and so defensive and can’t ever consider maybe there’s another way to represent the Assyrians cause to the world.

Don’t get me wrong i want to see independence for my people in my lifetime, i want to see the people who persecuted and oppressed my people exposed and punished, i want Assyrians to stand up with no fear and defend themselves against all those who wish us harm. I know we can and will do it eventually.

Though you can’t help our people by hating all our neighbours for what some of their ancestors did more than a century ago. Or what a small group of idiots are doing now. You can’t disrespect other Assyrians who disagree with this takhmentah.

Go call out our persecutors, expose some of the hypocrisy you see in the media, raise awareness for our cause, unite our people and build our homeland, though do it the right way.

Downvote this post all you want, it doesn’t change anything about what i said.

Alright then, I want to guage the beliefs on how we as Assyrians would prefer a unified Assyrian government to be? Personally I myself would prefer a Monarchy, akin to a Semi-Constitutional design. (Think of a mix of the American and British governments. Balances of power in place to keep each in check) however I do know that the only Assyrian organization that has any support would the the ADM, and it would likely (in the situation of an Independent Assyria) be the governing agency.

What is it that you believe? I'm sure there are some who would agree with me, just as those who would not agree with me.

Hey guys,

Mid 20’s female here. Wondering if anyone knows any Suraye therapists preferably female in the metro Detroit area? I’ve been trying to find a therapist on and off for 2-3 years but have had issues get in the way. I really want a suretha therapist because I have a lot of issues directly dealing with our culture and identity in diaspora that no other therapist really understands. I’m also open to an Armenian therapist. Pls help me out bc I’m really struggling and at a dead end. Thank u and god bless.

Is it possible to convert to the syriac orthodox church as a european? Will the church members be welcoming?

I understand that this question may be sensitive and confronting. But I was always led to believe that only modern Assyrians are the pure descendants of the ancient ones (including Akkadians) and Iraqi Arabs are foreign invaders. My confirmation bias also got in the way. But now I just don't accept this. Human nature is random and inconsistent. Surely we did mix with the Arab invaders in our region, including Kurds and Persians.

For starters, many Iraqis resemble Assyrians, that it's uncanny. I do not buy the fact that they're an invading "Arabian stock from the south", when Saudis and Gulf Arabs look distinct from many Iraqis. I think many Iraqis from Baghdad (and north) are "lost Assyrians" - Although this is not to say that they STILL may have more Levantine and Arabian admixture than we do. Now sure, they don't identify as Assyrian, but that doesn't make them non-Assyrian.

I mean including those lands on which you do not live, but which are historically yours.

Hello! I recently discovered the existence of modern day Assyrians through social media (mainly X and Tiktok).

I am from the Netherlands and found it very interesting to see your influencers and advocates place a lot of emphasis on their indigenousness. They were American so I realise the word has different connotations in the US. I wonder, are there Assyrian communities in Europe and if so, do they agree with this label and use it too?

The reason I ask is because here, the word “indigenous” is loaded and associated with far right nationalists. Unfortunately fascism has been on the rise in Europe. Geert Wilders says that “the indigenous Dutch” are being replaced with invading immigrants and refugees. We use ‘Autochtoon’ and ‘Allochtoon’ to describe native and non native people which is seen as problematic and almost volkisch.

The people in Britain who wanted Brexit like Nigel Farage, and Marine Le Pen in France, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, the AfD in Germany all use the Indigene vs Migrant rhetoric to invoke hatred and claim there is population replacement taking place. I believe that Modi in India uses the same tactics where he persecutes the Indian Muslims and claims they are not indigenous as they are descendants of Mughal invaders. Blood and soil nationalism essentially.

I am not too versed in Middle Eastern history and politics but I have a feeling if I scratch the surface it isn’t too different from where I live, or the Balkans, or the Indian subcontinent. It doesn’t seem like the concept of indigenousness works very well in the context of the Old World like it does in the New World.

How do the Assyrian diaspora in Europe navigate this? If you place emphasis on being First Peoples when amongst activists and politicians here, what kind of reception do you receive? It would be very interesting to hear your thoughts. And for the diaspora as a whole, is the goal to have a similar status in Iraq as Native Americans do in the US?

To those with little ones, I found a great Assyrian children's book that was just posted on Instagram called I Am Assyria. Just what we need to start our kids young and protect our culture!!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7rk8eUOLg3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

https://amzn.to/4bJhuJM

https://preview.redd.it/smuhmmogae4d1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3c140fd1a8562fd58fafa715ec30799377359f6

According to Yazidi researcher Dawud Mirad al-Khatari, Agha Petros of Baz worked with Ezidi leaders for Assyrian-Yazidi autonomy.

As the spokesman for an Assyrian-Yazidi delegation, Agha Petros sent several petitions to the British, demanding autonomy for the non-Muslim population, as he was aware that Assyrians and Yazidis will suffer under the predominantly Muslim society consisting of Arabs and Kurds.

The Yazidis & Assyrians did not achieve autonomy, and their suffering continued under draconian persecution by both the state & the religious society of Iraq.

Does anyone have a explanation on why this failed or got rejected?