LONDON -- Iraq's 1.2 million Assyrian Christians -- remnants of the Assyrian empire and the only people who still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ -- are once again the victims of circumstances beyond their control. Unlike the Kurds, the Assyrians are all but ignored in discussions over Iraq's future.
Over the centuries the Assyrians have been oppressed by the Persians, Mongols, Turks, Kurds and Arabs. In World War I, they lost nearly two-thirds of their population, including their archbishop.
Iraq's Assyrian Christians are centered in three main areas -- approximately 200,000 in their traditional homeland in northern Iraq, 1 million in central Iraq -- mostly in Baghdad -- and a few thousand more in southern Iraq.