Iraqi-Assyrians
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 300,000 - 500,000 , | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|
Baghdad; Dohuk and Nineveh Governorates; Habbaniya (pre-1990s) |
|
| Languages | |
| Assyrian and Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Chaldean Catholic Church, Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Church of the East, with smaller percentages being Syriac Catholic, Syriac Orthodox Church, Assyrian Pentecostal Church, and Assyrian Evangelical Church |
Iraqi Assyrians are an ethnoreligious and linguistic minority in present-day Iraq, and are the indigenous population of the region. Assyrians in Iraq are those Assyrians still residing in the country of Iraq, and those in the Assyrian diaspora who are of Iraqi-Assyrian heritage. They are (along with the Mandeans) an indigenous, and have direct cultural and genetic lineage from the ancient Mesopotamians, in particular from the Akkadian peoples (Assyrians and Babylonians) who emerged in the region c.3000 BC, and the Aramean tribes who intermingled with them from the 9th century BC onwards.
Assyrians are a Semitic people who speak, read and write a modern-day Eastern Dialects of ancient Aramaic that has existed in Iraq since 1200 BC, of which retains even older Akkadian grammatical influences and loan words (the language which they originally spoke). They are mainly a Christian people, and follow a collection of ethnic-based Eastern Christian denominations which first evolved in the region in the 1st century AD. The Assyrians of Iraq adhere to the Syriac Catholic Church, Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church and Ancient Church of the East, in addition to other recently formed Assyrian Protestant churches including the Assyrian Pentecostal Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church.
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