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Tur Abdin
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===Modern=== Gaunt has estimated the Assyrian population at between 500,000 and 600,000 just before the outbreak of World War I, significantly higher than reported on Ottoman census figures. [[Midyat]], in [[Diyarbekir vilayet]], was the only town in the Ottoman Empire with an Assyrian majority, although divided between [[Syriac Orthodox]], [[Chaldean Catholics|Chaldeans]], and [[Protestants]].{{sfn|Gaunt|2015|p=87}} Syriac Orthodox Christians were concentrated in the hilly rural areas around Midyat, known as Tur Abdin, where they populated almost 100 villages and worked in agriculture or crafts.{{sfn|Gaunt|2015|p=87}}{{sfn|Üngör|2011|p=13}} Syriac Orthodox culture was centered in two monasteries near Mardin (west of Tur Abdin), [[Mor Gabriel Monastery|Mor Gabriel]] and [[Deyrulzafaran]].{{sfn|Üngör|2011|p=15}} Outside of the area of core Syriac settlement, there were also sizable populations in the towns of [[Diyarbakır]], [[Urfa]], [[Harput]], and [[Adiyaman]]{{sfn|Gaunt ''et al.''|2017| p=19}} as well as villages. Unlike the Syriac population of Tur Abdin, many of these Syriacs spoke other languages.{{sfn|Gaunt|2020|p=57}} [[File:Syriac quarter in Mediyat1.jpg|thumb|View of the Syriac Christian quarter in [[Midyat]]]] During [[World War I]], 300,000 Assyrian Christians were killed in the Ottoman Empire's [[Genocide]] in Syriac called ''[[Sayfo]]'', or 'the sword'). In the last few decades, caught between Turkish assimilation policies against [[Kurdish people|Kurds]], and Kurdish resistance, many Assyrians have fled the region or been killed. Today there are only 5,000, a quarter of the Christian population thirty years ago. Most have fled to [[Syria]] (where the city of [[Qamishli]] was built by them), [[Europe]] (particularly Sweden, Germany, the [[United Kingdom]] and the [[Netherlands]]), Australia and the United States. In the past few years, a few families have returned to Tur Abdin.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/en/2012/12/17/news/tur-abdin-the-lost-land-of-the-arameans-1.36352959/ | title=Tur Abdin: The lost land of the Arameans| website=[[La Stampa]]| date=17 December 2012}}</ref> Due to migration, the Syriacs' main residential area in Turkey today is [[Istanbul]], where around 20,000 lives there.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://eclj.org/religious-freedom/un/syriac-christians-and-of-their-heritage-in-turkey?lng=en | title=Event in Geneva on the Protection of the Aramean/Syriac Christians and of their Heritage in Turkey| website=[[European Centre for Law and Justice]]| date=26 January 2015}}</ref> As of 2019, an estimated between 2,000 and 3,000 of the country's 25,000 [[Assyrians in Turkey|Assyrians]] live in Tur Abdin,<ref name="Religious Minorities in Turkey">{{cite book|title=Religious Minorities in Turkey: Alevi, Armenians, and Syriacs and the Struggle to Desecuritize Religious Freedom| first=Christoph |last=Giesel|year= 2017| isbn= 9781137270269| page =169 |publisher=Springer|quote=}}</ref> and they are spread among 30 villages, [[Hamlet (place)|hamlets]], and towns.<ref name="Religious Minorities in Turkey"/> Some of these locations are dominated by Syriacs while others are dominated by the Kurds.<ref name="Religious Minorities in Turkey"/> As part of a return movement, some Syriac Orthodox Christians returned to Tur Abdin villages from [[Germany]], [[Sweden]] and [[Switzerland]].<ref>Çaglar (2013), p. 122</ref><ref>Güsten (2016), p. 11</ref><ref name="Religious Minorities in Turkey"/> Prominent diaspora communities exist in these countries, and often advocate a Syriac-Aramean identity affiliated with the Syriac Orthodox Church
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