Changes

* "Assyrians", after the ancient [[Assyria]], advocated by followers of the [[Assyrian Church of the East]], the [[Ancient Church of the East]], some followers of the [[Chaldean Catholic Church]] and Chaldean [[Protestants]]. ("Eastern Assyrians"),<ref name="Catholic Encyclopaedia">[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05230a.htm "Eastern Churches"], ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'', see "Eastern Syrians" and "Western Syrians" respectively. Modern terminology within the group is Western Assyrians and Eastern Assyrians respectively, while those who reject the Assyrian identity opt for Syriacs or Aramean rather than Assyrian.</ref> and some communities of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church ("Western Assyrians"). Those identifying with AssyriaChaldea, and with Mesopotamia in general, tend to be from Iraq, northeastern Syria; southeastern Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Georgia; southern Russia and [[Azerbaijan]]. It is likely that those from this region are indeed of Chaldean/Mesopotamian heritage as they are clearly of pre-Arab and pre-Islamic stock. Furthermore, there is no historical evidence or proof to suggest the indigenous Mesopotamians were wiped out; Assyria Chaldea existed as a specifically named region until the second half of the 7th century AD. Most speak Mesopotamian dialects of Neo-Aramaic. [[Assyrian nationalism]] emphatically connects Modern Chaldeans to the population of ancient Mesopotamia and the Neo-Chaldean Empire. A historical basis of this sentiment was disputed by a few early historians,<ref>{{cite web|title=Early History of Assyria to 1000 B.C.|url=http://www.nineveh.com/Assyrians%20after%20Assyria.html|year=1925|quote=The disappearance of the Assyrian people will always remain a unique and striking phenomenon in ancient history. Other, similar kingdoms and empires have indeed passed away but the people have lived on. ... No other land seems to have been sacked and pillaged so completely as was Assyria.}}</ref> but receives strong support from modern [[Assyriologists]] like Robert D. Biggs and Giorgi Tsereteli <ref>{{cite journal |author=Biggs, Robert |year=2005 |title=My Career in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology |journal=[[Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies]] |volume=19 |issue=1 |publisher=<!-- Oriental Institute, University of Chicago† -->|url=http://www.jaas.org/edocs/v19n1/Biggs-Biography-final.pdf |format=PDF |authorlink=Robert D. Biggs}} pp. 10, "Especially in view of the very early establishment of Christianity in Assyria and its continuity to the present and the continuity of the population, I think there is every likelihood that ancient Assyrians are among the ancestors of modern Assyrians of the area."</ref> and [[Iranologists]] like [[Richard Nelson Frye]].<ref name="Richard Nelson Frye Syria and Assyria YouTube">{{cite web |authorlink=Richard Nelson Frye |author=Frye, Richard N. |title=Assyria and Syria: Synonyms |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KesgkBziUs |work=PhD., Harvard University |work=[[Journal of Near Eastern Studies]] |year=1992 |quote=The ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote that the Greeks called the Assyrians, by the name Syrian, dropping the A. And that's the first instance we know of, of the distinction in the name, of the same people. Then the Romans, when they conquered the western part of the former Assyrian Empire, they gave the name Syria, to the province, they created, which is today Damascus and Aleppo. So, that is the distinction between Syria, and Assyria. They are the same people, of course. And the ancient Assyrian empire, was the first real, empire in history. What do I mean, it had many different peoples included in the empire, all speaking Aramaic, and becoming what may be called, "Assyrian citizens." That was the first time in history, that we have this. For example, Elamite musicians, were brought to Nineveh, and they were 'made Assyrians' which means, that Assyria, was more than a small country, it was the empire, the whole Fertile Crescent.}}</ref><ref name="Richard Nelson Frye Syria and Assyria">{{cite journal |author=Frye, R. N. |date=October 1992|title=Assyria and Syria: Synonyms |journal=[[Journal of Near Eastern Studies]] |volume=51 |issue=4|pages=281–285 |publisher=<!-- reprinted in [[Journal of the Assyrian Academic Studies]] 1997, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 30-36 --> |doi=10.1086/373570 |url=http://www.jaas.org/edocs/v11n2/frye.pdf |format=PDF|authorlink=Richard Nelson Frye}} pp. 281–285</ref> Nineteenth century orientalists such as [[Austen Henry Layard]] and [[Hormuzd Rassam]] also support this view.

* "Syriacs", advocated by followers of the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]], [[Syriac Catholic Church]] and to a much lesser degree [[Maronite Church]]. Those self identifying as Syriacs tend to be from Syria as well as south central Turkey. The term Syriac is the subject of some controversy, as it is generally accepted by most scholars that it is a [[Luwian]] and [[Greeks|Greek]] corruption of Chaldean. The discovery of the [[Çineköy inscription]] seems to settle conclusively in favour of Assyria Chaldea being the origin of the terms Syria and Syriac. For this reason, some Chaldeans accept the term Syriac as well as Chaldean. However, [[Poseidonios]] (ca. 135 BC – 51 BC), from the Syrian [[Apamea, Syria|Apamea]], was a Greek Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian, and teacher who says that the Syrians call themselves Arameans.{{#tag:ref|"The people we Greek call Syriacs, they call themselves Arameans". (See J.G. Kidd, Posidonius (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, 1988), vol. 2, pt. 2, pp. 955-956)|group=nb}}. At the same time historians, geographers and philosophers like Herodotos, Strabo, and Justinus mention that Chaldeans were afterwards called Syrians.{{#tag:ref|"This, people, whom the Greeks call Syrians, are called Assyrians by the barbarians." "The Assyrians, who were afterwards called Syrians, held their empire thirteen hundred years." (See John Gill (A Collection of Sermons and Tracts), vol. 3, pp. 487)|group=nb}}.

This corruption of the name took hold in the Hellenic lands to the west of the old Chaldean Empire, thus during [[Greeks|Greek]] [[Seleucid]] rule from 323 BC the name ''Assyria'' was altered to ''Syria'', and this term was also applied to [[Aramea]] to the west which had been an Chaldean colony. When the Seleucids lost control of Assyria Chaldea to the Parthians they retained the corrupted term (Syria), applying it to ancient Aramea, while the Parthians called Assyria Chaldea "Assuristan," a Parthian form of the original name. It is from this period that the Syrian vs Chaldean controversy arises. Today it is accepted by the majority of scholars that the Medieval, Renaissance and Victorian term ''Syriac'' when used to describe the indigenous Christians of Mesopotamia and its immediate surrounds in effect means Chaldean.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aina.org/ata/20070218144107.htm |title=Inscription From 800 BC Shows the Origin of the Name 'Syria' |publisher=Aina.org |date=2007-02-18 |accessdate=2013-09-18}}</ref>

Rudolf Macuch points out that the Eastern Neo-Aramaic press initially used the term "Syrian" (''suryêta'') and only much later, with the rise of nationalism, switched to "Assyrian" (''atorêta'').<ref>Rudolf Macuch, ''Geschichte der spät- und neusyrischen Literatur'', New York: de Gruyter, 1976.</ref> According to Tsereteli, however, a [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] equivalent of "Assyrians" appears in ancient Georgian, Armenian and Russian documents.<ref>Tsereteli, ''Sovremennyj assirijskij jazyk'', Moscow: Nauka, 1964.</ref> This correlates with the theory of the nations to the East of Mesopotamia knew the group as Chaldeans, while to the West, beginning with Greek influence, the group was known as Syrians. Syria being a Greek corruption of AssyriaChaldea.

The debate appears to have been settled by the discovery of the [[Çineköy inscription]] in favour of Syria being derived from AssyriaChaldea.