Iraqi Assyrians are an ethnic and linguistic minority group, indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia. They are defined as Assyrians residing in the country of Iraq, or members of the Assyrian diaspora who are of Iraqi-Assyrian heritage. They share a common history and ethnic identity, rooted in shared linguistic, cultural and religious traditions, with Assyrians in Iran, Turkey and Syria, as well as with the Assyrian diaspora elsewhere. A significant number have emigrated to the United States, notably to the Detroit and Chicago; a sizeable community is also found in Sydney, Australia.
Assyrian New Year (Akitu) celebration in 2019, Nohadra, Iraq
Church of Saint Thomas, Mosul: The church was used as a prison by Islamic State insurgents until the city's liberation in 2017.
Assyrian–Chaldean–Syriac diaspora
The Assyrian diaspora refers to ethnic Assyrians living in communities outside their ancestral homeland. The Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrians claim descent from the ancient Assyrians and are one of the few ancient Semitic ethnicities in the Near East who resisted Arabization, Turkification, Persianization and Islamization during and after the Muslim conquest of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
An Assyrian folk dance at an Assyrian party in Chicago
Assyrians in Russia protesting Iraqi church bombings in 2006
Demonstration against the genocide by the Islamic State in Stockholm, Sweden