"most of western Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Egypt. Beginning with the rise of the Rashidun Caliphate in the late 7th century, Arabic gradually replaced Aramaic as the lingua franca of the Middle East. However, Aramaic remains a spoken, literary, and liturgical language for local Christians and also some Jews. Aramaic also continues to be spoken by the Assyrians of Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and northwest Iran, with diaspora communities in Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and southern Russia. The Mandaeans also continue to use Mandaic Aramaic as a liturgical language, although most now speak Arabic as their"
"very rare. Unlike some other Syriac Christian religious communities in the Middle East, the Syriacs in Turkey still speak Neo Aramaic languages, specifically the Turoyo language. However, some also speak Turkish, and the community in Mardin traditionally speaks Arabic due to historical reasons. Intermarriage between Syriacs and other Christian groups (Armenians and Greeks) is very rare as well. It was estimated in 2016 that there were 10,000 Syriac Orthodox in Turkey, with most living in Istanbul. The Tur Abdin region is an historical stronghold of Orthodox Syriacs. Prior to the 1970s and the Turkey-PKK conflict the Tur Abdin region was"
"the Arabic speech of the Syriacs was intermixed with Syriac vocabulary. They chose Arabic and Muslim-sounding names, while women had Biblical names. The community speaks Arabic (Mesopotamian and Levantine) and Neo-Aramaic in Arabic countries, and Turkish, Arabic and Neo-Aramaic in Turkey. Syriac Orthodox Church in the Middle East </noinclude> Syriac Orthodox Christians, known simply as Syriacs (""Suryoye""), are an Assyrian ethno-religious subgroup who follow the West Syrian Rite Syriac Orthodox Church in the Middle East and the diaspora, numbering between 150,000 and 200,000 people in their indigenous area of habitation in Syria, Iraq, and Turkey according to estimations. The community"
"language by Syriac Christians. English, and to a lesser extent French, is widely understood and used in interactions with tourists and other foreigners. Religious differences in Syria have historically been tolerated, and religious minorities tend to retain distinct cultural, and religious identities. Sunni Islam is the religion of 74% of Syrians. The Alawites, a variety of Shia Islam, make up 12% of the population and mostly live in and around Tartus and Latakia. Christians make up 10% of the country. Most Syrian Christians adhere to the Byzantine Rite; the two largest are the Antiochian Orthodox Church and the Melkite Greek"
"Turoyo language Turoyo (also called Surayt) is a Central Neo-Aramaic language traditionally spoken in Southeastern Turkey and Northeastern Syria by Syriac Christians. Most speakers use the Classical Syriac language for literature and worship. Turoyo speakers are currently mostly members of the Syriac Orthodox Church, but there are also Turoyo-speaking members of the Chaldean Catholic Church, especially from the town of Midyat, and of the Assyrian Church of the East. It is also currently spoken in the Syriac Diaspora, although classified as a vulnerable language. Turoyo is not mutually intelligible with Western Neo-Aramaic having been separated for over a thousand years,"
"branch of Syriac Christianity, and uses the East Syriac Rite in its liturgy. Its main spoken language is Syriac, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic, and the majority of its adherents are ethnic Assyrians. It is officially headquartered in the city of Erbil in northern Iraqi Kurdistan, and its original area also spreads into south-eastern Turkey and north-western Iran, corresponding to ancient Assyria. Its hierarchy is composed of metropolitan bishops and diocesan bishops, while lower clergy consists of priests and deacons, who serve in dioceses (eparchies) and parishes throughout the Middle East, India, North America, Oceania, and Europe (including the Caucasus"
"Turkish Assyrians Assyrians/Syriacs in Turkey are an indigenous Semitic-speaking ethnic group and minority of Turkey (and also northern Iraq and northeast Syria) with a presence in the region dating to as far back as the 25th century BC, making them the oldest ethnic group in the nation. Some regions of what is now south eastern Turkey were an integral part of Mesopotamia from the 25th century BC to the 7th century AD, including its final capital, Harran. They are Eastern Aramaic speaking Christians, with most being members of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Chaldean Catholic Church, Assyrian Pentecostal Church, Assyrian Evangelical"
"[[Syriac language|Syriac]] written script, and have maintained an [[Assyrian continuity]] from ancient times to the present, resisting the adoption of Arabic language and [[Arabization]]. In his recent PhD thesis and in his recent book the Israeli scholar Mordechai Zaken discussed the history of the Assyrian Christians of Turkey and Iraq (in the Kurdish vicinity) during the last 180 years, from 1843 onwards. In his studies Zaken outlines three major eruptions that took place between 1843 and 1933 during which the Assyrian Christians lost their land and hegemony in their habitat in the Hakkārī (or Julamerk) region in southeastern Turkey and"
"ethnic group in Syria are the Kurds. They constitute about 9% to 10% of the population, or approximately 1.6 million people (including 40,000 Yazidis). Most Kurds reside in the northeastern corner of Syria and most speak the Kurmanji variant of the Kurdish language. The third largest ethnic group are the Turkish-speaking Syrian Turkmen/Turkoman. There are no reliable estimates of their total population, with estimates ranging from several hundred thousand to 3.5 million. The fourth largest ethnic group are the Assyrians (3–4%), followed by the Circassians (1.5%) and the Armenians (1%), most of which are the descendants of refugees who arrived"
"language (Arabic), not ethnicity. It should be noted that some Muslim minorities in Syria have been Arabized to some degree, particularly the smaller ethnic groups (such as the Albanians, Bosnians, Cretan Muslims, Pashtuns, Persians, etc.), but also some members of the larger minorities, such as the Kurds and Turkmen. The Kurds in Syria are the second largest ethnic group in the country (forming around 10% of the population) and are mainly Sunni Muslims. The majority live in the northeast, bordering on Iraq and Turkey. There are also smaller Kurdish communities in central Syria, followed by Kobani and Afrin. In the"
"minority. The Chechen language is spoken by the Chechen minority in two villages on the Khabur River. The Armenian language is spoken within the Armenian community in Aleppo and other major cities, such as Damascus and in one small town exclusively in Kessab. Although Syria does not recognise any minority languages, the Armenians are the only community allowed to teach in their own language, in addition to Arabic. There is also a small number of Greek speakers in Syria. The Greek language is spoken in Al-Hamidiyah by Cretan Muslims. Their demand to be allowed to teach Greek in their schools"
"regions of Northern Syria: There are also smaller minorities of Armenians throughout Northern Syria as well as Chechens in Ras al-Ayn. Four languages from three different language families are spoken in Northern Syria: For these four languages, three different scripts are in use in Northern Syria: Most ethnic Kurdish and Arab people in Northern Syria adhere to Sunni Islam, while ethnic Assyrian people generally are Syriac Orthodox, Chaldean Catholic, Syriac Catholic or adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East. The dominant PYD party and the political administration in the DFNS are decidedly secular and laicist. This list includes all"
"(Feyli Kurds) as well as Shia Kurds who are in Syria and especially in Turkey. Amongst Shia Muslim Kurdish communities, in particular the practitioners of Alevism in Anatolia, the Zaza language is found more commonly. Mystical practices and participation in Sufi orders are also widespread among Kurds, with prominent Kurdish Sufi saints including Piryones. The Alevis (usually considered adherents of a branch of Shia Islam with elements of Sufism) are another religious significant minority among the Kurds, living in Eastern Anatolia in Turkey, meanwhile, it is estimated that 30% of Kurds in Turkey are Alevis. Alevism developed out of the"
"Arabic (the official language of Syria), where the Church has always been known as the ""Syriani"" church; the term ""Syriani"" being the same word used to identify the Syriac language in Arabic. Being the lone exception up until the year 2000, English identified the church mainly as the ""Syrian"" Orthodox Church; with ""Syrian"" being derived from the term ""Syrian church"" used by English-speaking historians to describe the community in ancient Syria prior to the Nestorian/Jacobite split in the 5th century. (see: Christianity in Syria). Syriac-speaking Christians have historically referred to themselves as Suraye/Suryaye, literally ""Syriac"", leading to most members favoring"
"Syria Syria ( ), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( """"), is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including Syrian Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Circassians, Mandeans and Turks. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Isma'ilis, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Yazidis, and Jews. Sunni make up the largest religious group in Syria. Syria is a unitary republic"
"higher if Arabized Turkmen are also taken into consideration; some estimations indicate that only 30% of Turkmen still speak their mother tongue, therefore, the Arabic-speaking Turkmen are likely to be omitted from the Sunni Turkmen population estimates. Most Circassians in Syria are Sunni Muslims. They form the fifth largest ethnic group in the country (around 1.5% in 2013) but the fourth largest Sunni Muslim community in Syria. They live mostly in three Syrian governorates: the Hama Governorate, the Homs Governorate and the Quneitra Governorate. Most Circassians speak very good Arabic but they have also retained their mother tongue. In 1991"
"Syria in 1943 giving details of religious groups of the population and the rate of growth of each (citizens were not allowed to declare their ethnicity or mother tongue): The largest religious group in Syria is the Sunni Muslims. The majority are formed of indigenous Syrian but there is also a significant number of Sunni Kurds, Turkmen/Turkoman, and Circassians, as well as refugees who have arrived in the country, such as Iraqis and Palestinians. Sunnis follow nearly all occupations, belong to all social groups and nearly every political party, and live in all parts of the country. All the largest"
"Sunni Muslims accounted for 74% of Syria's population, which included 500,000 Palestinan refugees and the non-Arab Sunni Muslims, namely the Kurds (9-10%) and the Turkmen/Turkoman (4%). Other Muslims included Shias and Alawites (11%-16%), whilst the Christians made up 10% of the population. There were also a few Jewish communities in Aleppo and Damascus. Arabic is the official, and most widely spoken, language. Arabic speakers make up 85% of the population. Several modern Arabic dialects are used in everyday life, most notably Levantine in the west and Mesopotamian in the northeast. A report published by the UNHCR points out that ""while"
"as the branches of the Eastern Catholic Churches, Syriac Orthodox Church, Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, Assyrian Church of the East, and Armenian Orthodox Church, which have existed in the region since the first century AD. Syrian Kurds, an ethnic minority making up approximately 9 percent of the population, have endured ethnic discrimination and the denial of their cultural and linguistic rights, as well as the frequent denial of their citizenship, for the history of the Syrian state. Turkmen are estimated to be 3-5% of the population. Assyrians, an indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking Christian Semitic people, numbering approximately 400,000, are found"
"region. A minority of Syriac Christians still speak various Aramaic dialects. An Aramean identity is mainly held by a number of Syriac Christians in southcentral Turkey, southeastern Turkey, western, central, northern and southern Syria and in the Aramean diaspora especially in Germany and Sweden. In 2014, Israel recognized the Aramean minority, an Arabic- and Aramaic-speaking Christian community. Arameans are mostly defined by their use of the West Semitic Old Aramaic language (1100 BC – AD 200), first written using the Phoenician alphabet, over time modified to a specifically-Aramaic alphabet. As early as the 8th century BC, Aramaic competed with the"
"spoken in Syria include: Non-indigenous dialects of Arabic, most notably those of Iraq and Palestine, are frequently used within their respective refugee diasporas, especially in Damascus. Kurdish (specifically Kurmanji) is the second most spoken language in Syria. It is spoken particularly in the northeast and northwest of the country within the Kurdish minority. Turkish is the third most widely used language in Syria. Various Turkish dialects are spoken by the Turkmen/Turkoman minority mostly in villages east of the Euphrates and along the Syrian-Turkish border. In addition, there are Turkish language islands in the Qalamun area and the Homs area. Moreover,"
"the Southeast in the Tur Abdin region up until being massacred and forced to flee during the Assyrian Genocide to Lebanon, where the See was reestablished. There is still a tiny Syriac Catholic community that lives in Mardin, but other than that most Syriac Catholics now live in Iraq, Syria, or Lebanon. Assyrian Protestant Churches exist in Turkey as well. Turkish Assyrians Assyrians/Syriacs in Turkey are an indigenous Semitic-speaking ethnic group and minority of Turkey (and also northern Iraq and northeast Syria) with a presence in the region dating to as far back as the 25th century BC, making them"
"Atoraye, Assouri, Assuristani, Suraye, Suryoyo, East Syrians, - they share the same culture, religion and language, originate from the same region, have the same distinct genetic profile, and they belong to one people. Very few Assyrians remain in Tur Abdin (Turkey), where monks protect some of the oldest monasteries of Christianity. There were around 1.5 million Assyrians in Iraq before 1990; now, many are fleeing their ancient homelands in the face of ethnic and religious persecution, and several political movements, like the Assyrian Democratic Movement and the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council are working to help to maintain their culture."
"speak a Hatay/Yayladağı dialect of the Turkish language. Some Syrian Turkmen living far from the Turkish border, such as in Homs, have managed to preserve their national identity but are more competent in speaking the Arabic language. In Damascus Syrian Turkmen speak the Turkish language with a Yörük dialect. In 2018 Dr. Eldad J. Pardo and Maya Jacobi reported that they did not identify any Turkish (nor Kurdish or Aramaic) teaching, either as a first or second language, in the Syrian national curriculum. The majority of Syrian Turkmen are Sunni Muslims, but there is also a small minority of Turkmen"
"and Syria the Turkish minorities are commonly referred to as ""Turkmen"", ""Turkman"" and ""Turcoman""; these terms have historically been used to designate Turkish speakers in Arab areas, or Sunni Muslims in Shitte areas. The majority of Iraqi Turkmen and Syrian Turkmen are the descendants of Ottoman Turkish settlers. and share close cultural and linguistic ties with Turkey, particularly the Anatolian region. In 2013 the Iraqi Ministry of Planning estimated that Iraqi Turkmen numbered 3 million out of the country's 34.7 million inhabitants (approximately 9% of the total population). Estimates of the Syrian Turkmen population range from several hundred thousand to"
"Syriac Christianity Syriac Christianity ( / ""Mšiḥāyuṯā Suryāyṯā"") is the form of Eastern Christianity whose formative theological writings and traditional liturgy are expressed in the Syriac language. The Syriac language is a variety of Middle Aramaic that in an early form emerged in Edessa, Upper Mesopotamia in the first century AD. It is closely related to the Jewish Palestinian Aramaic spoken by Jesus. This relationship added to its prestige for Christians. The form of the language in use in Edessa predominated Christian writings and was accepted as the standard form, ""a convenient vehicle for the spread of Christianity wherever there"
"the Kurdish regions of Syria. Armenian and Turkish (South Azeri dialect) are spoken among the Armenian and Turkmen minorities. Aramaic was the lingua franca of the region before the advent of Arabic, and it is still spoken among Assyrians, and Classical Syriac still used as the liturgical language of various Syriac Christian denominations. Most remarkably, Western Neo-Aramaic is still spoken in the village of Ma'loula as well as two neighboring villages, 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Damascus. Many educated Syrians also speak English and French languages. People in Turkmenistan (when it was still a part of the Russian Empire)"
"Aramaic Syriac language of Persian Assyria, which would become the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity. The descendant dialects of this branch of Eastern Aramaic, which still retains Akkadian loanwords, still survive as the spoken and written language of the Assyrian people. It is found mostly in northern Iraq, north western Iran, southeastern Turkey and northeastern Syria and, to a lesser degree, in migrant communities in Armenia, Georgia, southern Russia, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Azerbaijan as well as in diaspora communities in the West, particularly the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Sweden, Australia and Germany. A small number of Israeli"
"Syriac Orthodox family in the small, all-Christian village of Hassana, easternmost settlement of the ""Tur Abdin"". This ethnically diverse region near the border triangle with Syria and Iraq is the traditional home of the Syriac Orthodox community in Turkey, which speaks a variety of the Aramaic language. In the 1980s and 1990s, almost all of them however fled to Istanbul or Western Europe, after the Turkish military forcibly ""evacuated"" and effectively depopulated thousands of villages. Hassana, where Dora spent his early childhood, was one of these villages abandoned in the 1990s. Aged nine, Dora moved to Istanbul, where he attended"
"majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslim, others are Alevi Muslim, with Christian and Yarsan minorities. The nationalist aspiration for self-rule or for a state of Kurdistan has created conflict between Kurdish minorities and their governments in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey Mandaeans, sometimes also called Sabians, are a people found mainly in southern Iraq. Their numbers total no more than 70,000. They follow Mandaeism, a gnostic religion. Mhallami are a tiny minority of the Assyrian/Syriac people who have converted to Islam but retained their Syriac culture. Nubians, found in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt, are a different ethnicity from their"
"The Assyrians are indigenous to modern northern Iraq, southeast Turkey, northwest Iran and, much recently, northeast Syria. The area which is northern Iraq today encompassed Assyria between the 21st century BC and 7th century AD. Much of this land is now inhabited by Kurds (including Yezidis) and to a lesser extent, Armenians. They are a Semitic people, with many (estimates range between 575,000 and 1,000,000) still speaking, reading and writing Akkadian influenced dialects of East Aramaic. Today they are mostly a Christian people, with most being followers of the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church,"
"Religion in Syria Religion in Syria refers to the range of religions practiced by the citizens of Syria. Historically, the region has been a mosaic of diverse faiths with a range of different sects within each of these religious communities. The majority of Syrians are Muslims, of which the Sunnis are the most numerous (formed mostly of Syrian Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen/Turkoman, and Circassians), followed by the Shia groups (particularly Alawis and Isma'ilis), and Druzes. In addition, there is several Christian minorities (including Armenian Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox groups). There is also a small Jewish community. The largest religious group"
"İdil İdil ( ' or ', Kurdish: ""Hezex,"" Arabic"": آزخ Azekh"") is a district of Şırnak Province of Turkey. The predominant religion in the region is Islam, although it was once the home of many Arameans belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church and who were speakers of Turoyo, an Aramaic dialect, as well as North Mesopotamian Arabic. Idil, part of Tur Abdin, was one of the villages that violently resisted the Aramean genocide from 1915–1918 (the final years of the Ottoman Empire) and successfully fought forces in the number of thousands of the Ottoman Empire. In the late 20th century,"