I am Kurdish, and I am Muslim. But I genuinely love and respect Assyrians. I have always wished that Kurds and Assyrians could live together peacefully, even in the same country, where both peoples could preserve their identities, cultures, languages, and histories.

And I say this as someone who is not ignorant of our painful shared history.

During World War I, my own ancestors were directly involved in some of the biggest conflicts between Kurds and Assyrians. Some members of my family were also killed during the Assyrian retaliation following Simko Shikak’s assassination of Mar Shimun.

In fact, our family has preserved oral accounts of what happened during the meeting between Simko and Mar Shimun. According to what has been passed down through generations, our ancestors were shocked when Simko killed Mar Shimun. It was not something they had expected. It was Simko’s own decision, and the consequences were devastating.

Even some of the words and conversations from that meeting have been preserved in our family’s oral history, passed from one generation to another for more than a century.

What saddens me most is that the Kurds and Assyrians of that time and geography were extremely unfortunate. So much of their fate ended up in the hands of people like Simko, who, in my view, cared more about maintaining his dominance and securing his own position than achieving peace.

But beyond Simko, I believe there is something we Kurds need to acknowledge more openly.

Assyrians suffered enormously, and I don’t think we, as Kurds, have fully recognized the scale of their suffering or the role that Kurdish leaders and armed groups played in it.

Of course, Kurds also suffered throughout that period. My own family experienced that suffering. But recognizing our own tragedies should never prevent us from acknowledging the tragedies of others, especially when our own ancestors were involved.

I don’t believe that we should inherit the hatred of our ancestors, but I do believe we have a responsibility to understand their history honestly.

I am not asking Assyrians to forget what happened, nor am I trying to justify any of it. I simply want to say that there are Kurds who genuinely love Assyrians, respect their ancient heritage, and recognize the terrible injustices they experienced.

I wish our ancestors had found a different path. Perhaps our history would have been very different.

I hope one day Kurds and Assyrians can look at each other not as historical enemies, but as two peoples who have suffered enough and deserve to live together in peace, dignity, and mutual respect.

I often have to remind myself that we are a fragmented nation due to churches and the many denominations that we have built over the centuries. But, this doesn’t mean we have to follow the teachings of the early church fathers and what they thought was factual to be our only way to make sense of the world and how we view ourselves.

I know the early church fathers often used this term to make it sound like it means Christian. But I think this is creating a problem for future generations to understand their roots. This is why we also have the word, M’shekhaya, which is the CORRECT and proper label for Christian. If you label yourself Suraya and use the same term for other ethnicities out there and say that are Suraya, you are essentially relinquishing your heritage and namesake to be flexible. This is how we muddle the waters b/c now this label is no longer relevant to your culture’s heritage and anyone who follows the Christian faith can exclusively use this term.

Take for example the label “Semitic” as we are often grouped with this label as it stems from “Shem”, one of the 3 sons of Noah that supposedly Assyrians were born from. When you go far back into its roots, this is where the label Semitic comes from. Today it’s used for languages but it’s also used for heritage to tie a people to the ANE. This word is also misleading to our nation since it has no bearing on human evolution and how humanity evolved and migrated throughout history to how we ended up in măt-Aššur.

At the end of the day, nobody can force anyone to believe this but it takes time to educate oneself and know that the word Suraya is much more older than the Pešitta and when it was written down and how the early church fathers viewed our beginnings which is false and doesn’t have any evidence to back it up.

Lastly, being labelled as an “ethno-religious” group or community, solely, is false and also misleading other Assyrians to accept only Assyrians that adhere to the Christian faith and ostracise others if they don’t agree with the faith. If I decide to leave the faith, then I’m still an Assyrian at the end of the day and I haven’t lost my genetics or heritage if I depart. This is why this new-age label is also erroneous and needs to be challenged when someone makes this claim.

Hi all, I didn't know where to post this. My stepdaughter is participating in an upcoming United Nations celebration Day at her elementary School. Her family background is Chaldean, and she really wants to represent that culture in the celebration.

I know next to nothing about the Chaldean people and I'm learning slowly but surely. I still want to support her in representing them. I don't know the best way to get traditional clothing or the significance of the different clothing styles.

Can anyone here please point me in the right direction? It would make her so happy to be able to represent the Chaldean culture at her school.

I came across this presentation on the archaeological evidence for Syriac Christianity in Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan, and thought people here might find it interesting!

Kevin White is a scholar specializing in Syriac Christianity and the religious history of Central Asia.

He recently published Rediscovery of a Lost History of Central Asian Christianity: Historical Context and Archaeological Evidence (Gorgias Press, 2026). The book grew partly out of archaeological work following the discovery in East Kazakhstan of a large stone bearing a cross and Syriac inscription. Subsequent excavations helped identify the site of the medieval Silk Road city of Ilibalyk in southeastern Kazakhstan.

The book brings together Soviet and more recent archaeological research on Syro-Aramaic Christianity in Kazakhstan and the wider region. It is quite substantial, around 483 pages, with more than 200 photographs and illustrations, maps and archaeological sites.

The book can be purchased online, but his presentation is also available online for free and gives a very interesting overview.

For anyone interested in the history of the Church of the East and Syriac Christianity beyond Mesopotamia, I think this is a particularly valuable contribution. I think it's amazing to think just how far Syriac Christianity had spread along the Silk Road!

Also interesting to note is that Kevin is developing the Central Asian Center for Syriac Studies (formerly Department of Nestorian Studies) to serve as a field-based platform to facilitate research and development of this field: https://www.nestorianstudies.org/index.php/en/

I’m an Assyrian woman (23) who met a man (23).

A little backstory. My family and I live in the west. I started university a few years ago, but I had to postpone my studies for a year. When I returned to university, I met him in my new study group.
At first, we strictly talked about school-related matters, but gradually, we got to know each other as friends. He is from Iran, but he was baptized when he was around 14. His parents are atheists (formerly Muslims). He goes to church, reads the Bible, and is generally curious about religion.
When the semester exams were over, we didn’t talk for a couple of months because I had already completed and passed those courses. Eventually, he texted me and asked when we could study together. We started talking again and arranged a few study sessions with two other friends.
As we grew closer, I realized what a wonderful person he is. He is very responsible and mature, and throughout his youth, he has prioritized his education and waited until he found the right person to share his life with. He also confessed to me that ever since he first saw me, he hasn’t been able to get me out of his mind. I have to admit that I feel the same way about him.
He has always treated me with respect and kindness and when he looks at me I can tell that he loves me with all his heart. My feelings for him are, of course, mutual. He is willing to talk to my parents and even meet with our pastor.

The problem is that whenever I talk to my mother about him, she is very dismissive because she doesn’t believe he is a Christian and still sees him as a Muslim.

What should I do?

This is definitely not a generalisation of the Assyrian/Chaldean community because the majority of Surayeh are great people.

Unfortunately, though I have been around this small group of people from our community and I just feel very confused, hurt and even disgusted by their treatment of me.

To sum it up, I haven’t done anything to them, I have been respectful to them and considerate.

The entire time i have known them they have this group/clique that comes across as very unapproachable and unfriendly towards those they have no interest in interacting with.

Like they don’t include you or barely acknowledge you even exist.

I did initially make friends with some of them but our relationship was defined by this bizarre hot and cold dynamic, which just felt very confusing and frustrating, almost like they were bipolar or something.

Then it seemed like someone in the group disliked me and they started gossiping/spreading lies or exaggerations about me and sabotaged my relationships with them.

Though all i have ever done is try fit in and be friendly/ make friends.

Usually they are just cold and distant but in some occasions some of them are just rude, like the way they speak to you and how they treat you differently and with less consideration.

It’s also not just them but some of their nakhrayeh friends also started dislike me and give me dirty looks.

I’m also on the receiving end of a lot of distrust from them, they strongly distrust me even though they are the ones who behave passive aggressively and hot and cold.

My question is why would a group of 4-5 people treat you like that?

How do i handle this?

Whats their problem?

I have it be honest this experience was horrible, i feel so hurt and heart broken, my confidence in meeting others from our community has definitely been shaken.

Another thing i noticed about some of the worst ones in the group is that they only treat people they see as having high status with respect, they seem to look down or act like you don’t exist if in their eyes, if you aren’t high status like them, they pretend to be moral but everything about them is performative and everything they do is for clout.

We were excited to welcome students from the Assyrian Clubs at Niles West, Niles North, and CICS Northtown Academy to the Assyrian Cultural Foundation!

During their visit, we showed them around the ACF and shared the history and programs that make our community special.

From fine arts, music, and tutoring to the Ashurbanipal Library.

Thank you for spending time with us. We are grateful for the curiosity, energy, and pride our young people bring to our community. We love seeing the next generation connect with their heritage, and we’ll always be cheering them on!

Does anyone know Assyrians from Iraq say words with “th” and Assyrians from Iran say “t”. Which one did we originally say? And what caused this difference?

For example, the word for sweet is khleta in Irani Assyrian and khletha in Iraqi Assyrian.

The only Assyrian clothing I can find on the internet is Couture or upscale.

Does anyone sell affordable Assyrian clothes? I am not expecting H&M prices, but a plain jumpsuit for men should not cost more than $100 USD.

Embracing our culture feels inaccessible.

Spent some time around it, taking pics

Not one other person engaged with it, I wonder what they think it might be?

Anyone know any history behind it? Why it is there?

Hey guys, does anybody here know of two villages called "masernayse" and "jelwaya" near Damascus? To my knowledge these villages would have been mostly or part assyrian. I might have spelt those wrong. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

I recently released my first Assyrian song, Tyare d’Hakkareh, and I wanted to share it here and hear what people honestly think.

The song is meant to take the listener on a journey back to old Hakkari and our Assyrian roots. Much of it is inspired by real places, historical events, old tribal life, the mountains, resistance, faith and the memories connected to that land. It’s not meant to be a documentary, but a lot of the story comes from real history and is mixed with poetic storytelling.

I wrote the lyrics and created the melody myself. I play Tanbora, and a lot of my melodies come when I’m just playing freely and my hands start going somewhere unexpected. Usually that’s where I find something interesting and then start building the song around it.

For this release, the arrangement and vocals were made with AI assistance. I want to be open about that because AI singing is not really what I want long term. A real singer can give a song emotion, character and feeling that AI still doesn’t fully have.

I contacted several Assyrian singers/artists, but unfortunately I didn’t really get any response. Instead of leaving the song unfinished, I decided to experiment with AI and release it as my first song.

At the same time, I have found tools like Suno very useful during the songwriting process. When I already have a melody and lyrics, I can quickly test different arrangements, instruments, tempos and ideas and actually hear how the song could sound. Before, you might have to send the song to an arranger, wait, make changes, send it back again, and so on. With AI, I can test ideas immediately before deciding which direction I want the song to take.

For me, that is probably the best use of AI in music — as a tool for writing, arranging and experimenting, rather than replacing real singers and musicians.

I already have more Assyrian songs that I’m working on, and I would really like to work with real singers on future releases.

So if there are any Assyrian singers here who are interested, feel free to contact me. You can record a small demo and send it to me. If it works well, I’m happy to give permission to sing/record the song and work something out together.

I’m also open to someone re-singing Tyare d’Hakkareh with real vocals. I think it would be really interesting to hear how much more emotion a real singer could bring to it.

I’d especially like to hear what people think about the AI part:

Do you think it’s okay for a songwriter to use AI vocals if they can’t find a singer, as long as the lyrics and melody are still written by the songwriter?

Or do you feel AI vocals take too much away from Assyrian music?

And of course, feedback on the song itself — the melody, lyrics and the Hakkari/Tyari feeling — is welcome too.

Tyare d’Hakkareh
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Cj1h3rHqGj0?si=YV4iW2PjTAXSHUvx

This is my first release, so I’m mainly trying things, learning, and seeing where it can go.

Hi everyone 👋

I’m Atalla, and for a while now I’ve been building something for us: Sharokin Radio, a 24/7 Assyrian radio station.

The “why” is simple. Our music, our language and our heritage mean everything to me — but I kept watching our younger generation drift from it, partly because so much of it lives in a language they don’t use day to day. So I made a deliberate choice: Sharokin Radio speaks in English, but the music is 100% Assyrian. The goal is to give our Gen Z a home they actually understand — and while they’re there, they rediscover their own culture and language.

It streams around the clock, Assyrian songs old and new, and it’s free to listen. We just launched our Android app so you can take it anywhere.

🎧 Listen: sharokinradio.com

📱 Android app: search “Sharokin Radio” on Google Play

I’d genuinely love this community’s honest feedback — artists we should add, what you’d want to hear, features you’d actually use. This is for us, so I want to build it with you. 🙏

Shlama/hi all. Full disclosure: I’m the person building this, so take it as a founder asking for feedback.

The app is called Mahabba. It’s for baptized Christians of the Eastern churches and the Catholic Church: Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean, Syriac Orthodox and Catholic, and the other Eastern churches. Everyone has to show their baptism certificate before they can meet anyone. A person reviews it once and then it’s permanently deleted; only the yes/no is kept. You can say which church you belong to, where your family comes from (Tur Abdin included), and which languages you speak.

It hasn’t launched and there are no members yet. I’d rather hear now what would put you off than find out after launch:

• Would you be willing to upload a baptism certificate?
• What’s wrong with how you meet people now: Facebook groups, family, church events?
• Would you want to be able to meet people in other countries?

Waiting list, if you want to be told when it opens: https://mahabba.pages.dev/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=assyria

We need more Assyrians like this that defend their own people, their homeland and their dignity by combating terrorism in any form.

Assyrian women have always been warriors. 🙌🏼✊🏼💪🏼

We are all connected to the great Assyrian empire and it shows in these women that anyone wants to FA, they will eventually FO …. 🔵⚪️🔴☀️🔵⚪️🔴

have you ever argued with a Kurdish ultranationalist? it may be a stupid question but I am curious

that’s all

Hi everyone! I'm not Assyrian, but I work in tech and recently started working with an Assyrian business owner here in the USA.

His business name contains a word that, when I tried to register a domain name, came back as "BANNED" for supposedly being highly offensive or associated with illicit activity.

I actually had to provide proof that the word was part of his legal business name and sign a form stating that I wouldn't be creating a hate website!

Naturally, this made me curious. Everything I've found online suggests the word isn't offensive at all and is actually connected to Assyrian identity.

The word is: Aturaya

I'd love to understand what this word means to Assyrians, whether it has any cultural or historical significance, and why a domain registrar might flag it.

Beyond that, I'm genuinely interested in learning more about Assyrian culture. Working with this client has introduced me to a community and history I previously knew very little about.

View this and more on assyrian.io/AA-0484