History
There were about 200,000 Assyrians in Iran at the time of the 1976 census. Many emigrated after the revolution in 1979, but at least 50,000 were estimated still to be living in Iran in 1987.
Assyrians have a long history in Iran. During the Neo Assyrian Empire (911-608 BC), much of western Iran (including Media, Persia, Elam and Gutium) was subject to Assyria. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, Assyria was ruled by Persia from 539 BC. Assyrians have possibly existed in north western Iran for many thousands of years.
The traditional home of the Assyrians in Iran is along the western shore of Lake Urmia from the Salamas area to the Urmia plain.. During World War I, Ottoman forces and Kurdish tribes along the Iranian-Turkish border stepped up attacks on the Assyrians both in the mountains and on the rich plains. In 1914 alone they attacked dozens of villages and drove off all the inhabitants of the district of Gawar. The Assyrians armed themselves, and for a time successfully repelled further attacks under the leadership of Agha Petros, and were successful enough to seize control of much of the Urmia region, defeating Ottoman Forces and their Kurdish and Azeri allies. However lack of ammunition and supplies, due mainly to the withdrawal of Russia from the war, and the collapse of allied Armenian forces led to their downfall. Massively outnumbered, surrounded, undersupplied and cut off, the Assyrians suffered terrible massacres. By the summer of 1918 almost all surviving Assyrians had fled the area. Local Kurds and Turks (Azari) took the opportunity of the last phases of World War I that had pitted Russian and Ottoman armies against each other, to rob Assyrian homes, carry off young women, and leave those remaining destitute. The critical murder that sowed panic in the Assyrian community came when Kurdish militias, under Agha Ismail Simko, assassinated the Patriarch, Mar Benyamin Shimon, on March 3, 1918 under the pretext of inviting him to negotiations. The Assyrians led a force to avenge this act, however despite defeating a Kurdish force, Simko escaped.
Read more about this topic: Assyrians In Iran
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