Assyrian Canadians are Canadians of

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

descent or Assyrians who have

Canadian citizenship Canadian nationality law details the conditions in which a person is a national of Canada. With few exceptions, almost all individuals born in the country are automatically citizens at birth. Foreign nationals may naturalize after living in Ca ...

. According to the 2011 Census there were 10,810 Canadians who claimed Assyrian ancestry, an increase compared to the 8,650 in the 2006 Census. They are the indigenous ''pre-Arab'' and ''pre-Turkic'' people of northern Iraq, southeast Turkey, northeastern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, and northwest Iran, who speak dialects of Eastern Aramaic and are mainly Christian, although some are irreligious. Although most come from the aforementioned countries, many Assyrians have immigrated to Canada from Jordan, Georgia and Armenia as well.

History

The "Presby-Assyrians"

Battleford's News-Optimist on June 22, 1979 noted that, “The Canadian West has no greater settlement story than that of the Assyrians who landed on Canadian soil on January 1, 1903.” Reverend Dr. Isaac Adams organized two groups of

immigrants from Urmia, one in 1903 and 1906. Unlike many other immigrant groups at the time, the settlers were composed of families and not just men. They were the first Presbyterians in the region. The ''

Presbyterian Record The ''Presbyterian Record'' was a monthly periodical published by Presbyterian Record Inc. primarily for members of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The magazine was published between January 1876 and January 2017. History and profile It was p ...

'', on January 1, 2008, the anniversary of the arrival of the Assyrian settlers, entitled their commemorative article: "Presby-Assyrians: they escaped persecution to form a unique community in Saskatchewan", connoting their religious and ethnic heritage.

Reasons for immigrating

Most Assyrians arrived in Canada due to both

ethnic persecution Ethnic violence is a form of political violence which is expressly motivated by ethnic hatred and ethnic conflict. Forms of ethnic violence which can be argued to have the characteristics of terrorism may be known as ethnic terrorism or ethnica ...

and

religious persecution Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within soc ...

, mainly from their ancient ancestral Assyrian homeland in northern Iraq, southeast Turkey, northeast

and northwest Iran. The migration to Canada may be broken up into a number of distinct periods: early settlement and the subsequent waves of migration sparked by the Assyrian genocide in present-day Turkey and Iran, the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

of 1979 and, more recently, the Iraq War and Syrian Civil War. The last 2006 Census Canada counted 8,650 The first period of known mass-migration came just after the Assyrian genocide in the dying days of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The second and perhaps largest wave of migration into came during the Iran–Iraq War. Under the shadow of war, Saddam Hussein's

al-Anfal Campaign The Anfal campaign; ku, شاڵاوی ئەنفال or the Kurdish genocide was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988, at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rur ...

constituted a major force for migration for Iraq's Assyrian population.

Activism

In 2014 after the ISIS attacks on the Nineveh plains, a rally on behalf of Assyrian genocide recognition was organized by

Ramsin Ishaq Ramsin is a village and a sub tehsil in Jalore District of Rajasthan, India. There is an ancient temple called Aapeshwar mahadev temple situated here. The temple is on the banks of a river flowing from the Dam Called Vitan towards Sikwara just ...

in Windsor, Ontario at the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

. Over 100 attendants, mostly Assyrian Christians, came out to rally the Canadian government to create an Assyrian State, through the UN. The rally received the support of

Brian Masse Brian S. Masse (born July 9, 1968) is a Canadians, Canadian politician. He has served in the House of Commons of Canada since 2002, representing the electoral district (Canada), riding of Windsor West as a member of the New Democratic Party. ...

of the NDP who spoke briefly, as well as a priest from the local Greek Orthodox Church.

Assyrian population in Canada by province and territory

References