=== Homeland ===
{{Main|Assyrian Chaldean Homeland}}
The Chaldeans are considered to be one of the indigenous people in the Middle East. Their homeland was thought to be located in the area around the [[Tigris]] and [[Euphrates]]. Chaldeans are traditionally from Iraq, south eastern Turkey, north western [[Iran]] and north eastern Syria. There is a significant Chaldean population in Syria, where an estimated 877,000 Chaldeans live.<ref>[http://www.ethnologue.com/%5C/15/show_country.asp?name=SY], [[SIL Ethnologue]]</ref>
In [[Tur Abdin]], known as a homeland for Chaldeans, there are only 3000 left,<ref name="3000turabdin">*[http://sor.cua.edu/SOCNews/index.html SOC News report,] ''He was documenting life in the Tur Abdin, where about 3,000 members of the Aramean minority still live''.</ref> and an estimated 25,000 in all of Turkey.<ref name=autogenerated18>[http://sor.cua.edu/SOCNews/2002/20021201EUPStmt.html Statement on Assyrians/Syriacs in Turkey/Iraq<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> After the 1915 [[Assyrian Chaldean genocide]] many Chaldeans/Syriacs also fled into Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and into the [[Western world]].
The Chaldean/Syriac people can be divided along geographic, linguistic, and denominational lines, the three main groups being:
* the "[[West Syrian Rite|Western]]" or "Jacobite" group of Syria, and central eastern [[Anatolia]] ([[Syriac Orthodox Church]] & [[Syriac Catholic Church]]);
* the "[[East Syrian Rite|Eastern]]" group of Iraq, northeast Syria south eastern Turkey, northwest Iran and Armenia ([[Assyrian Church of the East]] & [[Ancient Church of the East]]);* the [[Chaldean Christians|"Chaldean Christian" or "Chaldean Catholic"]]/Chaldo-Chaldean group of northern and central Iraq, northern Iran, and eastern [[Anatolia]] ([[Chaldean Catholic Church]]); Chaldean followers of the Chaldean Catholic church make up the majority of Iraqi Christian population since the conversion rejoining to Catholicism from the Chaldean [[Church of the East]] in the 17th and 18th centuries16th century.
=== Persecution ===