The political upheavals and ethnic conflict that occurred during the First World War caused widespread movement; on the one hand, numerous Assyrians followed the retreating Russian army and settled in the Caucasus regions, where some C. Urmi-speaking communities had already been established following the Treaty of Turkmenchay.
On the other hand, Assyrians who did not leave the region altogether ended up re-settling not in their former rural homes but rather within Urmi itself, and also established communities in other Iranian cities such as Tabriz, Hamadan and Tehran.
[2] The post-Great War immigration of C. Urmi-speakers to the Soviet Union resulted in several established communities, one of the largest of which is found near Armavir in a town dubbed Urmiya.
Prior to a 1937 repression under Stalin's regime, Urmi activity in Georgia was even more vibrant, seeing the establishment of theater group and a literary journal (Cuxva d-Madənxa, "Star of the East") in Tbilisi.
Two especially large communities have been established in Chicago and Turlock, in the San Joaquin Valley of California, which today hosts a population of around 15,000 Assyrians primarily of Urmi extraction.