Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans: Intercommunal Relations on the Pe ...

Today the vast majority of the remnant of the Assyrian tribes and their brethren who once lived throughout the adjoining regions are scattered in diaspora communities throughout forty-two countries, among different cultures.

The ethnic and religious balance that could have contributed to the well being of all the inhabitants of northern Mesopotamia was terminated because their Islamic neighbours lost the will to coexist with the Christian Assyrians. This development claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and ultimately contributed to driving the remaining Assyrians from the land of their ancestors. Its after effects can still be seen in the ethnic tensions disturbing modern states of Turkey and Iraq.