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The Syriac/Aramaic Flag

The Syriacs (In Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܝܐ ) are an ethnic group that is widely spred into countrys like Syria, Turkey, Israel, and . In later time, many of them had fled into Europe, the United States and Australia, to countrys like Germany and Sweden. Today houndred of thousands Syriacs lives in diaspora.. The Syriacs are descendants to the Arameans.

The Aramean king Abgar the Black (Abgar u Komo) got the Syriac people to leave their polyteism belief for christianity. During this time (300 after christ), the most Syriacs lived in a place called Tur Abdin in Turkey . Today, there is still 3000 Syriacs left in Tur Abdin . The most Syriacs today lives in Sweden and Germany. There are about 80 000 Syriacs in Sweden, and 13 000 - 15 000 lives in Sodertalje, also known as Mesopotalje. Worldwide, there are about 4-5 million Syriacs.

The term was changed from Syrian to Syriac in referring to the (Syrian Christian) people and language so as to avoid confusion with belonging to the country of Syria. For information on Syrian nationals see the Demographics of Syria.

Identification

The Syriac people was earlier named as Arameans and their language, Aramaic . The first ones that named the Arameans as Syrians (note the old name Syrians, today known as Syriacs ) was the well-known greek geographer and historian Strabo (Died AD 24) sayd in his work

-"Those who call them selves Arameans, are called Syrians by us"

History

Syriacs meets Christianity

Abgar V meets Taddeus
Main article: Abgar

The great king Abgar V the Black (In Syriac; Abgar u Komo), son of the Araméans , suffered from a leprosy sickness, that even his own doctor not could cure him from. Abgar had been told about a wise man in Palestine (Jesus) and that this person had effective cures against sicknesses. He send a delegation with a letter to Jesus and invited him to Edessa, to cure Abgar. Jesus answered that could not come to Edessa, because he was on other dutys. But he sent one of his followers, Taddeus and this Taddeus cured king Abgar V. and not long after, Abgar V and the aramaic converted into Christianity. Abgar V´s kingdom, Edessa, got famous because of this event, and many people visited Edessa to look at the letters that was exchanged between Abgar V and Jesus .
Later, Edessa became a important centre for the christian Arameans (Syriacs) and for theirs Syriac-Christian culture. The aramaic dialect that was spoken in Edessa, became standard language in the new Syriac-Christian church.

A stateless people
Since 300 A.D. the Syriac people are living without a own state. At the Ottoman Empiress fall after the first world war, the colonial power wanted to establish new order in the Middleast. France and Britain divided the area without taking consideration to ethnic groups. They drew a new map over the area and created new countrys as Syria, Iraq, Lebanon etc. Many Syriacs fled from Tur Abdin into the new countrys. Kamishli, Hassakeh and Derik was City´s in Syria that got dominated by Syriacs. Others fled to Irak, Jordan, Lebanon, and the remaining ones stayed in Tur Abdin, In Southwest Turkey. The Syriac group got divided, and at the late 60´s, the first Syriac people fled into Europe from Lebanon. Today, there are not many Syriacs left in the middleast. In the homeland, Tur Abdin there are still about 3000 Syriacs left .


The Syriac Genocide

Main article: Syriac Genocide

The Syriac Genocide (In Turkish: Arami-Suryani Soykirim, In Syriac: ܣܝܦܐ) is the event known as when the young turks in the Ottoman Empire killed about 2 million christians, of this are about 500 000 Syriacs in southwest Turkey, an area called Tur Abdin. The massacres started in 1915 and lasted in several years in shadows of the First World War. Priests were killed, churches were burned down, women were transported away and got raped and killed, children was taken and adopted by turkish and kurdish familys. Two Eye-Witnesses are describing the situation in some Syriac Villages.
Danho from Deyr Salib:

-"'In 1915, the then chief of Deyr Salib village, Alike Sevgan had promised that the Syriac people from Deyr Salib village would not be killed if they return to their village. Deyr Salib people went back to the village since they had believed Sevgan's word. As soon as they had returned, Sevgan sent them to the homes of Kurdish families as 'visitors' in groups of four or five. Nevertheless, this bloodthirsty murderer had set up a plan with the Kurdish villagers beforehand. In the evening of the same day he gave the Kurds a signal to "attack" by firing his gun. The Kurds using guns, sticks and stones attacked the innocent Syriac peole of Deyr Salib who had already been under captivity and killed 75 of them. Moreover, they threw the priest of Deyr Salib into the fire they had lit. As the priest was trying to run away from the flames, they brutally killed him with sticks and daggers."

Another Eye-Witnesse Niso Mirza from Beth Ishok village:

-"'In 1914 the Kurds gathered the Syriac people from Beth Ishok in Turabdin outside of the village and after they had strangled them all, they threw their dead bodies into the water wells of the village. Those wells still remain unopened. There are many wells full of our people's bones. I pray God that nobody would suffer such things."



Known Syriac Doctors of the Church

Main article: Doctor of the Church


References

  1. Abu Al-husayn 'ali Ibn Al-husayn Al-mas'udi, born 895 in Baghdad Iraq and died 957 in al-Fustat Egypt, was a historian and traveler, known as the “Herodotus of the Arabs.” He was the first Arab to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work. "Tur Abdin is the mountain where remnants of the Aramean Syriacs still survive." (Michael Jan de Goeje: Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum III, Leiden 1906, 54, I)
  2. ^ *SOC News report , He was documenting life in the Tur Abdin, where about 3,000 members of the Aramean minority still live.
  3. The Syrian-Orthodox Mor Jacob of Edessa (Urhoy) (present-day Urfa in Turkey, †708) says: " It is in this same way also we the Arameans, that is to say the Syrians …"
  4. Another East-Syrian lexicographer Bar Bahlul from Bagdad (†963) explains in his Syriac (Aramaic) dictionary the name "Syria": "And the Syrians were formerly called Arameans, (but) when Cyrus ruled over them, from then on they were called Syrians."
  5. Dionoysius Bar Salibi the Syrian-Orthodox bishop of Amid (Diyarbekir, Turkey, †1171), also called the star from the 12th century, says in his book ‘Against the Armenians": "The Armenians say: "From whom do you descend - you who are Syriacs by race?" Against them we will say: Neither do you know from whom you descend....It is we (Syrians) who have enlightened your authors and revealed to them that you are descending from Togarma....As to us Syrians, we descend racially from Shem, and our father is Kemuel (the) son of Aram, and from this name of Aram we are also called sometimes in the books by the name of "Aramaeans".
  6. The Syrian-Orthodox Patriarch Mor Michael the Great of Militene (Malatya, Turkey, † 1199 AD) writes: "The Children of Shem are the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Ludians and the Arameans who are the Syrians, the Hebrew and the Persians.". The same author says about the Mesopotamian history” The kingdoms which have been established in antiquity by our race, (that of) the Aramaeans, namely the descendants of Aram, who were called Syrians”.
  7. The Greek writer Posidonius (150 BC) says in his work.. " The people that we (The Greeks) calls as Syrians, is called by them-self Arameans..........Beacuse the people in Syra is the Arameans "
  8. :The term was changed from Syrian to Syriac in referring to the (Syrian Christian) people and language so as to avoid confusion with belonging to the country of Syria. For information on Syrian nationals see the Demographics of Syria.
  9. S:t Jakob from Serug in a poem about the martyrs Guria and Shamuna, he says that Abgar V is son of the Araméans: "Two precious pearls, which were an ornament for the bride of my lord Abgar, the Aramaean's son." (Text tr. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson (eds.), Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 8 (1886);) (See Syriac Manuscripts from the Vatican Library: Volume 1, VatSyr. 117, number 224:On Shmona and Gurya. Fol. 551a, p. 1099)
  10. This event is described in Eusebios from Caesares work Church-history (I.13;II.1) ( 300 A.D.)


Syriacs or Syrians may refer to:

  • Maronites, Lebanese Roman Catholic Uniate Christians
  • Melkites, Lebanese Greek-Catholic

It may also apply to Aramaic-speaking Christians of other denominations.

Aramaic Languages:

The language(s) may also be spoken in the diaspora.