Another difference between the two related communities is that the Assyrian identity in Syria (as in Iraq) is usually seen as inseparable from being Christian and even adhering to specific churches.

Thus the presence of originally Akkadian-speaking and later Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrians in the northeastern part of the modern country dates back over 4000 years, where they lived alongside a diverse set of other peoples such as Hittites, Hurrians and Amorites throughout the ages.

Important Assyrian cities in the region in ancient times include Til-Barsip, Carchemish, Guzana, Shubat-Enlil and Dur-Katlimmu.

In addition to experiencing such destabilising factors such as climate shifts and over-cultivation of land, the area was also vulnerable to attack from nomadic peoples.

[10][11][better source needed] At the onset of the 20th century, Kurdish tribes cooperated with the Ottoman authorities in the genocides against Armenian and Assyrian Christians in Upper Mesopotamia.

[13] During the 1930s and 1940s, many Assyrians resettled in northeastern Syrian villages, such as Tel Tamer, Al-Qahtaniyah, Al Darbasiyah, Al-Malikiyah, Qamishli and a few other small towns in Al-Hasakah Governorate.

[14] Most of the current population of Assyrians in Hasakah dates back to the French Mandate of Syria, when refugees from the now-Turkish areas north of present-day Syria (such as Tur Abdin) were settled together with displaced Armenians who had survived the Assyrian genocide and Armenian genocide in the area by the authorities as part of an effort to promote economic development.

[15] In 1936, religious and political leaders—mainly from the Assyrian and Armenian Christian and Kurdish communities, with a few Arab groups as well—pressured the French authorities to give autonomous status to the Syrian Al-Jazira province (nowadays the Al Hasakah) for its mixed-ethnic population, like in the Sanjak of Alexandretta, the Alawite State, or Jabal al-Druze.

[22] Gabriel Moushe Gawrieh, the current leader of the party, was detained by the Syrian government and imprisoned for 2 years, until his release in June 2016.

With the onset of the Syrian Civil War, Assyrians have formed numerous military forces in order to protect their communities.

The Bethnahrain Women's Protection Forces are the female brigade of the MFS and assume guard roles in the Assyrian communities of northeast Syria.

Sutoro police the Assyrian communities of northeast Syria, as well as working in concert with Asayish to safeguard the region.

Khabour Guards, as well as Nattoreh are a militia tied to the Assyrian Democratic Party and are active in the Khabur Valley of Syria.

In early 2016, Sootoro forces set up checkpoints in the Assyrian-controlled districts of Qamishli due to increasing terrorist attacks targeting Assyrians in the city.

[33] In early 2016, ISIL freed the remaining 42 hostages in exchange for an undisclosed ransom mediated by the Assyrian Church of the East.

This prompted the Gozarto Protection Forces to set up checkpoints in the district as the Syrian government, nor the Kurdish-led DFNS could guarantee their safety.

The Syriac Union Party (SUP), committed to the secular leftist "Dawronoye" ideology,[41] is a part of the governing Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM) coalition.

While Syriac was an official language of the Jazira Region from the outset, in August 2016, the Ourhi Centre in the city of Qamishli was started by the Assyrian community, to educate teachers in order to make Syriac-Aramaic an additional language to be taught in public schools,[42][43] which then started with the 2016/17 academic year.

[44] With that academic year, states the region's Education Committee, "three curriculums have replaced the old one, to include teaching in three languages: Kurdish, Arabic and Syriac.

[47][48] In April 2015, David Jendo, the leader of the Khabur Guards, was assassinated after being kidnapped alongside fellow commander, Elias Nasser.

[49][50] In November 2015, sixteen Assyrian and Armenian civic and church organizations issued a joint statement protesting Kurdish expropriation of private property.

The statement accuses the PYD of human rights violations, expropriation of private property, illegal military conscription and interference in church school curricula.

One day after his arrest, Sutoro announced a statement saying that "Action had to be taken against those spreading lies, that democracy has rules and limitations, and that defamation is punishable by law in Western countries".