communities in the Near East, from the 1st century CE, down to the modern times speakers in the modern
Near East Since
Syriac Christians belong to various
ethnic groups, native to the Near East and India, and also spread throughout
diaspora, several terms that are applied to those groups are also used to designate Syriac Christian communities that belong to distinctive
ethnicities. Various groups among modern Syriac Christians of the
Near East derive and uphold their
ethnic identities by claiming descendancy from peoples of the
Ancient Near East, such as: ancient
Arameans, ancient
Assyrians, ancient
Chaldeans, and ancient
Phoenicians. Since ethnic composition of the Near East suffered many substantial and successive changes during ancient, medieval, and modern times, all questions related to
ethnic continuity are not only viewed as complex, but also treated as highly sensitive. Some of those questions proved to be very challenging, not only for distinctive communities and their mutual relations, but also for scholars from several fields related to the study of Syriac Christianity. A common cultural denominator for all communities of Syriac Christians is found in the use of
Aramaic languages, both historical (Edessan Aramaic:
Classical Syriac) and modern (
Neo-Aramaic languages), acknowledging in the same time, within the bounds of mutually shared cultural heritage, that ancient Aramaic language was accepted as
lingua franca during the final two centuries of the
Neo-Assyrian Empire. A simplified list presents various
self-identifications among modern Syriac Christians of the Near East, with regard to their
ethnic or
ethno-religious identity (in alphabetical order): •
Arameans (mostly endorsed by adherents of the
Syriac Orthodox Church, and also by some in the
Syriac Catholic Church and the
Maronite Catholic Church) •
Assyrians (endorsed mostly by adherents of the
Assyrian Church of the East, and the
Ancient Church of the East, and also by some in the
Chaldean Catholic Church and the
Syriac Orthodox Church) •
Chaldeans (endorsed mostly by adherents of the
Chaldean Catholic Church) and the Aramean Democratic Organization. • those who favor Pan-Assyrian ethnic identity claim that all Aramaic-speakers are ethnic Assyrians, thus denying the validity of all other competing identities, with particular focus on the denial of a distinctive Chaldean ethnicity and Aramean continuity. Pan-Assyrian views are supported by Finnish scholar
Simo Parpola, who stated in 2004: "
In this context it is important to draw attention to the fact that the Aramaic-speaking peoples of the Near East have since ancient times identified themselves as Assyrians and still continue to do so", thus affirming his general pan-Assyrian positions within the wider field of
Assyriology. In general, modern Assyrian identity and Assyrian continuity is well supported by
Assyriologists, and those who argue for a pan-Aramean identity are usually treated as Assyrians by international organizations, or left neutral through a multi-name designation. Contrary to radical pan-Aramean and pan-Assyrian claims, various proponents of
poly-ethnic views are focused mainly on their own communities, recognizing at the same time the equality of other communities and the validity of their self-designations, thus creating a base for mutual acknowledgment and toleration. Advocates of such views are found in all groups, among moderate Arameans, Assyrians, Chaldeans and others. Prominent Assyrian scholar, professor Amir Harrak, who supports
Assyrian continuity that is based on historical traditions of
Assyrian heartlands, also acknowledges Aramean continuity that is based on similar historical traditions of some other (western) regions, thus demonstrating a balanced and moderate approach to those sensitive issues. Most who support such poly-ethnic approach are ready to accept traditional "Syriac" designation as a cultural
umbrella term, but without any suppression of distinctive ethnic identities. Thus, the term "Syriac peoples" (in plural) would designate a poly-ethnic group that includes distinctive peoples such as: modern Arameans, modern Assyrians, modern Chaldeans, and others. Such poly-ethnic
pan-Syriac views are endorsed by some organizations, such as the
European Syriac Union. Similar preferences for the use of Syrian/Syriac designations as unifying terms were also manifested during the formative stages of national awakening, at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1910, Nestorius Malech (d. 1927) edited and published a work of his late father George Malech (d. 1909), that contained a chapter under the title: "
The Arameans, Chaldeans, Assyrians and Syrians are One Nation and their Language is One". In order to explain the nature of those terms, the authors also claimed: "
These four names are not national, but geographical significations". Emphasizing the common use of "
Syrian language" among all those groups, the authors also advocated for the acknowledgement of a common "
Syrian nation". Such ideas, based on the use of "
Syrian" designations, lost their practicality soon after 1918, when the foundations of modern
Syria were laid, thus giving a distinctive
geopolitical meaning to
Syrian appellations, that became firmly tied to a country whose population was consisted mainly of
Muslim Arabs. Later attempts to employ slightly distinctive
Syriac designations came from foreign terminology, since native language had only one principal and widely accepted form (Suryaye/Suryoye) that simply meant:
Syrians, and it took almost a century to accept Syrian/Syriac distinctions, but only in cases when self-designations are expressed in foreign languages. Thus became acceptable to use terms like:
Syriac Christianity,
Syriac language,
Syriac literature, and
Syriacs in general, but traditional native appellations (Suryaye/Suryoye) remained unchanged. Views on
endonymic (native) designations are also divided. Aramean activists are endorsing two terms:
Ārāmayē () and
Sūryāyē (), but they are emphasizing that the second term was historically accepted as an alternative self-identification only since the 5th century CE, under the influence of Greek terminology. Assyrian activists are endorsing the term
Āṯūrāyē (), and also accept the term
Sūryāyē (), but they claim that it always represented just a slightly shortened form of the main designation for Assyrians. In the
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic language, both terms are thus used:
Āṯūrāyē ("Assyrians") and
Sūrāyē/Sūryāyē ("Syrians/Syriacs"). Disputes over ethnic identity began to intensify during the 1970s and gradually escalated to the point of mutual animosity that attracted the attention of foreign scholars and international institutions. Mutual denialism, particularly between radicalized proponents of pan-Aramean and pan-Assyrian claims, was perceived as being at odds with internationally endorsed principles, based on the notion that every ethnic community should be respected and allowed to choose its own self-designation. By the beginning of the 21st century, foreign scholars and institutions have shown an increasing tendency of taking neutral positions, that also affected terminology. Several attempts were made to create acceptable compound terms, by using various combinations of basic terms for Arameans, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs in general. Some of those solutions were applied in the
US census ("Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac"), and in the
Swedish census ("Assyrier/Syrianer"). Additional distinctions also appeared in regard to some other issues. Unlike the Assyrians, who emphasize their non-Arab ethnicity and have historically sought a state of their own, some urban
Chaldean Catholics are more likely to assimilate into Arab identity. Other Chaldeans, particularly in America, identify with the ancient Chaldeans of Chaldea rather than the Assyrians. In addition, while Assyrians self-define as a strictly Christian nation, Aramaic organizations generally accept that Muslim Arameans also exist, and that many Muslims in historic Aramea were converts (forced or voluntary) from Christianity to Islam. An exception to the near-extinction of Western Aramaic are the Lebanese Maronite speakers of
Western Neo-Aramaic; however, they largely self-identify as the
Phoenicians (the ancient people of Lebanon) and not Arameans. Some Muslim
Lebanese nationalists espouse Phoenician identity as well.
Assyria-Syria naming controversy The question of ethnic identity and self-designation is sometimes connected to the scholarly debate on the
etymology of "Syria". The question has a long history of academic controversy. The terminological problem dates from the
Seleucid Empire (323–150 BC), which applied the term
Syria, the
Greek and
Indo-Anatolian form of the name
Assyria, which had existed even during the Assyrian Empire, not only to the homeland of the Assyrians but also to lands to the west in the
Levant, previously known as
Aramea,
Eber Nari and
Phoenicia (modern
Syria,
Lebanon and northern
Israel) that later became part of the empire. This caused not only the original
Assyrians, but also the ethnically and geographically distinct
Arameans and
Phoenicians of the Levant to be collectively called
Syrians and
Syriacs in the
Greco-Roman world. The 1997 discovery of the
Çineköy inscription appears to prove conclusively that the term Syria was derived from the Assyrian term 𒀸𒋗𒁺 𐎹
Aššūrāyu., and referred to Assyria and Assyrian. The Çineköy inscription is a
Hieroglyphic Luwian-
Phoenician bilingual, uncovered from Çineköy,
Adana Province, Turkey (ancient
Cilicia), dating to the 8th century BCE. Originally published by Tekoglu and Lemaire (2000), it was more recently analyzed by historian Robert Rollinger, who lend a strong support to the age-old debate of the name "Syria" being derived from "Assyria" (see
Name of Syria). The examined section of the Luwian inscription reads:
§VI And then, the/an Assyrian king (su+ra/i-wa/i-ni-sa(URBS)) and the whole Assyrian "House" (su+ra/i-wa/i-za-ha(URBS)) were made a fa[ther and a mo]ther for me,
§VII and Hiyawa and Assyria (su+ra/i-wa/i-ia-sa-ha(URBS)) were made a single "House". The corresponding Phoenician inscription reads: And the king [of Aššur and (?)] the whole "House" of Aššur ('ŠR) were for me a father [and a] mother, and the DNNYM and the Assyrians ('ŠRYM) The object on which the inscription is found is a monument belonging to Urikki,
vassal king of
Hiyawa (i.e.
Cilicia), dating to the 8th century BC. In this monumental inscription, Urikki made reference to the relationship between his kingdom and his
Assyrian overlords. The Luwian inscription reads "Sura/i" whereas the Phoenician translation reads '
ŠR or "Ashur" which, according to Rollinger (2006), settles the problem once and for all. Some scholars in the past rejected the theory of 'Syrian' being derived from 'Assyrian' as "naive" and based purely on onomastic similarity in Indo-European languages, until the inscription identified the origins of this derivation. In
Classical Greek usage, terms
Syria and
Assyria were used interchangeably.
Herodotus's distinctions between the two in the 5th century BCE were a notable early exception.
Randolph Helm emphasizes that Herodotus "never" applied the term Syria to Mesopotamia, which he always called "Assyria", and used "Syria" to refer to inhabitants of the coastal Levant. While himself maintaining a distinction, Herodotus also claimed that "those called
Syrians by the Hellenes (Greeks) are called
Assyrians by the barbarians (non-Greeks). Greek geographer and historian
Strabo (d. in 24 CE) described, in his "
Geography", both Assyria and Syria, dedicating specific chapters to each of them, but also noted, in his chapter on Assyria: Throughout his work, Strabo used terms
Atouria (
Assyria) and
Syria (and also terms
Assyrians and
Syrians) in relation to specific terminological questions, while comparing and analyzing views of previous writers. Reflecting on the works of
Poseidonius (d. 51 BCE), Strabo noted: In the 1st century AD,
Jewish historian
Flavius Josephus wrote about various peoples who were descended from the
Sons of Noah, according to
Biblical tradition, and noted that: "
Assyras founded the city of Ninus, and gave his name to his subjects, the Assyrians, who rose to the height of prosperity. Arphaxades named those under his rule Arphaxadaeans, the Chaldaeans of to-day. Aramus ruled the Aramaeans, whom the Greeks term Syrians". Those remarks testify that Josephus regarded all these peoples (Assyrians, Chaldeans, Arameans) as his contemporaries, thus confirming that in his time non-of those peoples were considered as extinct. "Syria" and "Assyria" were not fully distinguished by Greeks until they became better acquainted with the Near East. Under Macedonian rule after Syria's conquest by
Alexander the Great, "Syria" was restricted to the land west of the Euphrates. Likewise, the Romans clearly distinguished the
Assyria and
Syria. Unlike the Indo-European languages, the native Semitic name for Syria has always been distinct from Assyria. During the
Akkadian Empire (2335–2154 BC),
Neo-Sumerian Empire (2119–2004 BC) and
Old Assyrian Empire (1975–1750 BC) the region which is now Syria was called
The Land of the Amurru and
Mitanni, referring to the Amorites and the Hurrians. Beginning from the
Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC), and also in the
Neo Assyrian Empire (935–605 BC) and the succeeding
Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BC) and
Achaemenid Empire (539–323 BC), Syria was known as
Aramea and later
Eber Nari. The term
Syria emerged only during the 9th century BC, and was only used by Indo-Anatolian and Greek speakers, and solely in reference to
Assyria. According to Tsereteli, the
Georgian equivalent of "Assyrians" appears in ancient
Georgian,
Armenian and
Russian documents, making the argument that the nations and peoples to the east and north of Mesopotamia knew the group as Assyrians, while to the West, beginning with
Luwian,
Hurrian and later
Greek influence, the Assyrians were known as Syrians.
Ethnic identities Assyrian identity (since 1968) An
Assyrian identity is today maintained by followers of the
Assyrian Church of the East, the
Ancient Church of the East, the
Chaldean Catholic Church,
Syriac Orthodox Church,
Assyrian Pentecostal Church,
Assyrian Evangelical Church, and to a much lesser degree the
Syriac Catholic Church. Those identifying with Assyria, and with
Mesopotamia in general, tend to be
Mesopotamian Eastern Aramaic speaking
Christians from northern
Iraq, north eastern
Syria, south eastern
Turkey and north west
Iran, together with communities that spread from these regions to neighbouring lands such as
Armenia,
Georgia, southern
Russia,
Azerbaijan and the
Western World. The Assyrianist movement originated in the 19th to early 20th centuries, in direct opposition to
Pan-Arabism and in the context of
Assyrian irredentism. It was exacerbated by the
Assyrian genocide and
Assyrian War of Independence of World War I. The emphasis of Assyrian antiquity grew ever more pronounced in the decades following World War II, with an official
Assyrian calendar introduced in the 1950s, taking as its
era the year 4750 BC, the purported date of foundation of the city of
Assur and the introduction of a new
Assyrian flag in 1968. Assyrians tend to be from Iraq, Iran, southeast Turkey, northeast Syria, Armenia,
Georgia, southern Russia and Azerbaijan, as well as in diaspora communities in the US, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Sweden, Netherlands etc.
Assyrian continuity, embodied in the idea that the modern Assyrians are descended from the ancient Assyrians, is also supported by several western scholars, including:
Henry Saggs,
Robert Biggs, John Brinkman,
Simo Parpola, and
Richard Frye. It is denied by historian
John Joseph, himself a modern Assyrian, and Semitologist Aaron Michael Butts. Eastern Syriac Christians are on record, but only from the late nineteenth century, calling themselves
Aturaye, Assyrians, and the region now in Iraq, northeast Syria and southeast Turkey was still known as Assyria (
Athura,
Assuristan) until the 7th century AD. Christian missionary
Horatio Southgate (d. 1894), who travelled through
Mesopotamia and encountered various groups of indigenous Christians, stated in 1840 that
Chaldeans consider themselves to be descended from
Assyrians, but he also recorded that the same
Chaldeans hold that
Jacobites are descended from those ancient
Syrians whose capital city was
Damascus. Referring to
Chaldean views, Southgate stated: Rejecting assumptions of
Asahel Grant, who claimed (in 1841) that modern
Nestorians and other Christian groups of Mesopotamia are descendants of ancient
Jewish tribes, Southgate remarked (in 1842): Southgate visited Christian communities of the Near East sometime before the ancient Assyrian sites were rediscovered by western archaeologists, and in 1844 he published additional remarks on local traditions of ancient ancestry: It's from the remarks of Horatio Southgate that the Armenian "Asori" (), which in
Classical Armenian is derived from the Akkadian "Assur" (), has been noted and analyzed by several scholars, in relation to their significance for the question of
Assyrian continuity. The Armenian Base Form Dictionary of the
University of Texas at Austin defines "Asori" as meaning Assyrian and "Syrian" based on the writings of
Movses Khorenatsi, and the label was translated as Assyrian from several Armenian language dictionaries. In a 2025 presentation at
Yerevan State University, Dr. Nicholas Al-Jeloo noted that the Armenian "Asorakan" () is simultaneously used to refer to the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, and that Asori didn't refer to the ancient Arameans until the Syriac Orthodox Church began a shift in names during the 1950s.'''''' Criticisms of the Armenian "Asori" exist from those who support Aramean identity, suggesting that the interpretation of "Asori" as Assyrian is made by those who lack understanding in the Armenian language. Some authors have noted that in the language of Southgate's
Armenian informers, the term
Assouri (Asori) would designate
Syrians in general, while an Armenian specific term for "Assyrians" would be
Asorestantsi. Such views were criticized by other authors. Noting that Southgate's reports do not state that Syriac Jacobites self‐identified as Assyrians, some authors have pointed out that Southgate himself did accept such notions, in opposition to Grant's theories. Systematic use of "Assyrian" designations for Syriac Christians gained wider acceptance in the context of later Protestant missions in the region, particularly after the establishment of the ''Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission to the Assyrian Christians'' (1886), that avoided the term "Nestorians" for adherents of the
Church of the East.
Chaldean identity What is now known to be
Biblical Aramaic was until the second half of the 19th century called "Chaldean" (Chaldaic, or Chaldee), and East Syriac Christians, whose
liturgical language was and is a form of
Aramaic, were called Chaldeans, as an ethnic, not a religious term.
Hormuzd Rassam applied the term "Chaldeans" to the "
Nestorians", those not in communion with Rome, no less than to the Catholics. He stated that "the present Chaldeans, with a few exceptions, speak the same dialect used in the
Targum, and in some parts of
Ezra and
Daniel, which are called 'Chaldee'." In western terminology, the term "Chaldeans" was used in the 15th century, as designation for a group of Eastern Christians in
Cyprus, who originally descended from Mesopotamia, and entered an ephemeral union with the Catholic Church in 1445, and later for those who entered into communion with the Catholic Church in their ancestral regions, between the 16th and 18th centuries. Until at least the mid-nineteenth century, the name "Chaldean" was the ethnic name for all the area's Christians, whether in or out of communion with Rome.
William F. Ainsworth, whose visit was in 1840, spoke of the non-Catholics as "Chaldeans" and of the Catholics as "Roman-Catholic Chaldeans". For those Chaldeans who retained their ancient faith, Ainsworth also stated that the name "Nestorians" was applied to them since 1681, to distinguish them from those in communion with Rome. A little later,
Austen Henry Layard also used the term "Chaldean" even for those he also called Nestorians. The same term had earlier been used by Richard Simon in the seventeenth century, writing: "Among the several Christian sects in the Middle East that are called Chaldeans or Syrians, the most sizeable is that of the Nestorians". As indicated above, Horatio Southgate, who said that the members of the
Syriac Orthodox Church (West Syrians) considered themselves descendants of
Asshur, the second son of
Shem, called the members of the divided
Church of the East Chaldeans and Papal Chaldeans. In 1875, Henry Van-Lennep stated that the term "Chaldean Church" is a "generic name" for Christian "Assyrians". Thus, speaking of the
Nestorian Schism of 431, that occurred many centuries before the division of the
Church of the East into those who accepted and those who rejected
communion with the Catholic Church, he wrote: "At the schism on account of Nestorius, the Assyrians, under the generic name of the Chaldean Church, mostly separated from the orthodox Greeks, and, being under the rule of the Persians, were protected against persecution". Although it was only towards the end of the 19th century that the term "Assyrian" became accepted, largely through the influence of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission to the Assyrian Christians, at first as a replacement for the term "Nestorian", but later as an ethnic description, today even members of the Chaldean Catholic Church, such as
Raphael Bidawid, patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church from 1989 to 2003, accept "Assyrian" as an indication of nationality, while "Chaldean" has for them become instead an indication of religious confession. He stated: "When a portion of the Church of the East became Catholic in the 17th Century, the name given was 'Chaldean' based on the Magi kings who were believed by some to have come from what once had been the land of the Chaldean, to Bethlehem. The name 'Chaldean' does not represent an ethnicity, just a church... We have to separate what is ethnicity and what is religion... I myself, my sect is Chaldean, but ethnically, I am Assyrian". Before becoming patriarch, he said in an interview with the
Assyrian Star newspaper: "Before I became a priest I was an Assyrian, before I became a bishop I was an Assyrian, I am an Assyrian today, tomorrow, forever, and I am proud of it". That was a sea change from the earlier situation, when "Chaldean" was a self-description by prelates not in communion with Rome: "Nestorian patriarchs occasionally used 'Chaldean' in formal documents, claiming to be the 'real Patriarchs' of the whole 'Chaldean Church'."
Nestorian Christians who "denied that Mary was the Mother of God and claimed that Christ existed in two persons. They consecrated leavened bread and used the 'Chaldean' (Syriac) language". Hannibal Travis states that, in recent times, a small and mainly United States-based minority within the
Chaldean Catholic Church have begun to espouse a separate Chaldean ethnic identity. In 2005, the new
Constitution of Iraq recognized Chaldeans as a distinctive community (Article 125). In 2017, the
Chaldean Catholic Church issued an official statement of its Synod of Bishops, reafirming its commitment to a distinctive Chaldean identity: : "As a genuine Chaldean people, we officially reject the labels that distort our Chaldean identity, such as the composite name "Chaldean Syriac Assyrian" used in the Kurdistan Region, contrary to the name established in the Iraqi constitution. We call upon our daughters and sons to reject these labels, to adhere to their Chaldean identity without fanaticism, and to respect the other names such as 'Assyrians', 'Syriacs', and 'Armenians'."
Chaldo-Assyrian identity genocide, in
Paris, with commemorative inscription using composite
Assyro-Chaldean designation In modern political history, some attempts were made to overcome terminological divisions by creating some new, complex terms like: Chaldo-Assyrians or Assyro-Chaldeans. Those designations were aimed to provide a composite umbrella term, that would serve as a vessel for the promotion of a unified national identity. The term "Assyro-Chaldeans", as a combination of the terms "Assyrian" and "Chaldean", was used in the
Treaty of Sèvres, which spoke of "full safeguards for the protection of the Assyro-Chaldeans and other racial or religious minorities". Soon after the implementation of political changes in
Iraq, a conference was held in Baghdad on 22–24 October 2003, attended by representatives of Christian communities, both Assyrian and Chaldean, adopting a resolution that proclaimed national unity under the composite name of "ChaldoAssyrians". The proposed name was not accepted by the major political factions in Iraq. In 2005, the new
Constitution of Iraq was adopted, recognising Assyrians and Chaldeans as two distinct communities (Article 125). That constitutional provision was criticized by proponents of national unity. They are mainly descended from western regions of the
Near East, including various parts of modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and some southeastern parts of modern
Turkey, but are today living in diaspora, especially in some European countries, such as Sweden, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Modern Arameans claim to be the descendants of the ancient
Arameans, who emerged in the
Levant in the 12th century BCE, and formed a number of local Aramean kingdoms, that were conquered by the
Neo-Assyrian Empire in the course of the 8th and the 7th centuries BCE. They preserved their ethnic and linguistic identity throughout several periods of foreign domination, and later accepted
Christianity. In English language, they self-identify as "Arameans" or "Syriacs", sometimes combining those designations in compound terms such as "Syriacs-Arameans" or "Arameans-Syriacs". In Swedish, they call themselves
Syrianer, and in German,
Aramäer is a common self-designation. In 2014,
Israel decided to recognize the Aramean community within its borders as a national minority (
Arameans in Israel), allowing most of the Syriac Christians in Israel (around 10,000) to be registered as "Aramean" instead of "Arab". The self-identification of some Syriac Christians as Arameans is documented in Syriac literature. Mentions include that of the poet-theologian
Jacob of Serugh, (c. 451 – 29 November 521) who describes St.
Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306 – 373) as "He who became a crown for the people of the Aramaeans [armāyūthā], (and) by him we have been brought close to spiritual beauty". Ephrem himself made references to Aramean origins, calling his language Aramaic, and describing Bar-Daisan (d. 222) of Edessa as "The Philosopher of the Arameans", who "made himself a laughing-stock among Arameans and Greeks".
Michael the Great (d. 1199) writes of his race as that of "the Aramaeans, namely the descendants of Aram, who were called Syrians". During
Horatio Southgate's travels through
Mesopotamia, he encountered indigenous Christians and stated that Chaldeans consider themselves to be descended from Assyrians, but he also recorded that the same Chaldeans hold that Jacobites are descended from ancient Syrians of
Damascus: "Those of them who profess to have any idea concerning their origin, say, that they are descended from the Assyrians, and the Jacobites from the Syrians, whose chief city was Damascus".
Syriac identity Syriac identity is manifested in several forms among modern Syriac Christians of the Near East. For some, those who
self-identify as ethnic Syriacs (
Suryoye) represent a distinctive
ethnic group. For others, Syriacs are Arameans (from the pro-Aramean point of view), or Assyrians (from the pro-Assyrian point of view). In some communities, Syriac identity is thus closely merged with the modern Aramean identity. Additional form of Syriac identity is manifested as a specific pan-Syriac identity, that is viewed as an all-encompassing
pan-ethnic identity. Some international
non-governmental organisations, such as the
European Syriac Union, founded in 2004, promote the notion that such (pan-Syriac) identity represents and includes all other ethnic and ethno-religious identities, and thus unites all groups (Arameans, Assyrians, Chaldeans and others). Historically,
endonymic (native) variants (
Suryaya/Suryoyo) were commonly used as designations for
linguistic (Syriac language),
denominational (Syriac Christianity) and
liturgical (Syriac rite) self-identification, thus referring to
Syriac-speaking Christians of the
Near East in general. In medieval times, those designations (
Suryaya/Suryoyo) were often used as common terms of collective self-identification, but later emergence of modern
Syria (after 1918) created some new challenges, in the fields of both regional and international terminology. In modern English terminology, term
Syrians is most commonly used as a
demonym for general population of the modern state of Syria. To distinguish themselves, modern Syriac Christians have thus accepted a more specific term
Syriacs, that is particularly favored among adherents of the
Syriac Orthodox Church and the
Syriac Catholic Church. In 2000, the Holy Synod of the
Syriac Orthodox Church officially recommended that in English language this church should be called "Syriac" after its official liturgical
Syriac language.
Phoenician identity Many of the
Catholic Maronites identify with a
Phoenician origin, as do some of the Lebanese population, and do not see themselves as Assyrian, or Aramean. This comes from the fact that present day
Lebanon, the Mediterranean coast of Syria, and northern Palestine is the area that roughly corresponds to ancient Phoenicia and as a result like the majority of the Lebanese people identify with the ancient Phoenician population of that region. Moreover, the cultural and linguistic heritage of the Lebanese people is a blend of both indigenous Phoenician elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years. In a 2013 interview the lead investigator,
Pierre Zalloua, pointed out that genetic variation preceded religious variation and divisions:"Lebanon already had well-differentiated communities with their own genetic peculiarities, but not significant differences, and religions came as layers of paint on top. There is no distinct pattern that shows that one community carries significantly more
Phoenician than another." However, a small minority of Lebanese Maronites like the Lebanese author
Walid Phares tend to see themselves to be ethnic Assyrians and not ethnic Phoenicians. Walid Phares, speaking at the 70th Assyrian Convention, on the topic of
Assyrians in post-Saddam Iraq, began his talk by asking why he as a Lebanese Maronite ought to be speaking on the political future of Assyrians in Iraq, answering his own question with "because we are one people. We believe we are the Western Assyrians and you are the Eastern Assyrians." Another small minority of Lebanese Maronites like the Maronites in Israel tend to see themselves to be ethnic Arameans and not ethnic Phoenicians. The vast majority of the Christians living in
Israel self-identify as Arabs, but the
Aramean community have wished to be recognized as a separate minority, neither Arab nor Palestinian but Aramean, while many others wish to be called Palestinian citizens of Israel rather than Arabs. The wish of the Aramean community in Israel was granted in September 2014, opening for some 200 families the possibility, if they can speak
Aramaic, to register as Arameans. Other Christians in Israel criticized this move, seeing it as intended to divide the Christians and also to limit to Muslims the definition of "Arab".
Saint Thomas Christians of India The
Saint Thomas Christians of India, where they are known as Syrian Christians, though ethnically unrelated to the peoples known as Assyrian, Aramean or Syrian/Syriac, had strong cultural and religious links with Mesopotamia as a result of trade links and missionary activity by the
Church of the East at the height of its influence. Following the 1653
Coonan Cross Oath, many Saint Thomas Christians passed to the
Syriac Orthodox Church and later split into several distinct churches. The majority, remaining faithful to the
East Syriac Rite, form the
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, from which a small group, known as the
Chaldean Syrian Church, seceded and in the early 20th century linked with what is now called the
Assyrian Church of the East.
Names in diaspora United States In the United States, adherents of the
Assyrian Church of the East (who originated from the Near East) are upholding Assyrian ethnic identity, but among followers of some other communities of Syriac Christians, like those of the
Chaldean Catholic Church and the
Syriac Orthodox Church, there are significant internal diversities, since parts of those communities uphold the Chaldean or Syriac/Aramean identity. Several questions related to ethnic identities of Syriac Christians were also the subject of official analyses by the
United States Congressional Joint Immigration Commission and
United States census authorities. In the 1980 census, Arameans and Assyrians were classified under two distinctive codes (430 and 452), while in the 1990 census, all communities, both ethnic and ethno-religious, were grouped under a single code (482). During the 2000 United States census, Syriac Orthodox Archbishops in the US,
Cyril Aphrem Karim and Clemis Eugene Kaplan, issued a declaration that their preferred English designation is "Syriacs". Within the official census classification, a specific solution was implemented by grouping all communities under a composite designation "
Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac". That decision was not welcomed by some Assyrian-American organizations, who sued the
United States Census Bureau, but lost the case. Some Maronite Christians also joined this US census (as opposed to
Lebanese American).
Sweden In
Sweden, adherents of the
Assyrian Church of the East uphold the Assyrian identity, but among adherents of the
Syriac Orthodox Church, who emigrated mainly from the Turkey during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, internal disputes arose over the question of ethnic identity. Those among them, who preferred the indigenous designation "
Suryoyo" in Swedish as well, later came to be known as "
Syrianer" in Swedish). Among "
Syrianer", Aramean identity is usually also advocated. One consequence of this problem lead to the Syriac Orthodox Church creating two parallel jurisdictions in Sweden (1994), one for Syriacs-Arameans, and other for Assyrians. When referring to the community, Swedish authorities use the double term
assyrier/syrianer. ==See also==