واليوم في الشرق الأوسط, the group identifies itself as Sūrāyā (Syrian) in singular and Sūrāyē in plural [21], which is considered to be a synonym of Aššūrāye (Assyrians.) The group translates the word Suraye as Christians, for when Chaldeans had their name changed from Nestorians when they reunited with the Catholic Church, the identity was necessarily coupled with Catholicism. In the diaspora, however, and specifically in the US and Australia, some understand the group to have adopted the Chaldean name only as an ethnicity.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]
^J. Martin Bailey, Betty Jane Bailey, Who Are the Christians in the Middle East? p. 163: "more than two thirds" out of "nearly a million" Christians in Iraq.
^"Chaldean Christians"(HTML) (in English). Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 1908-11-01. The name of former Nestorians now reunited with the Roman Church. Strictly, the name of Chaldeans is no longer correct; in Chaldea proper, apart from Baghdad, there are now very few adherents of this rite, most of the Chaldean population being found in the cities of Kerkuk, Arbil, and Mosul, in the heart of the Tigris valley, in the valley of the Zab, in the mountains of Kurdistan. It is in the former ecclesiastical province of Ator (Assyria) that are now found the most flourishing of the Catholic Chaldean communities. The native population accepts the name of Atoraya-Kaldaya (Assyro-Chaldeans) while in the neo-Syriac vernacular Christians generally are known as Syrians.{{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
^"Origin and Identity of the Arabs"(HTML) (in English). ImNin'alu.net. Akkadians, Assyrians and Arameans: These are the only peoples in this region that were fully and originally Semitic. The term Akkadians refers to the early historic period of the peoples that later were identified as Hebrews in Canaan and Assyrians in Mesopotamia, while the Arameans constituted the western branch of the same stock. Assyrians eventually split into two branches, of which the southern is more commonly known as Chaldeans or Babylonians. These peoples were NOT Arabs. The Assyrians became Christians in the first century c.e. and did never accept Islam, so they have been persecuted and the largest majority of them are still in exile, though there has been a permanent Assyrian presence in the area. They speak their own ancient language and their homeland is until now usurped by an Arab entity called Iraq. Consequently, since Assyrians still exist and are not Arabs, the Arab nationalists cannot ascribe an Arab identity to the ancient Semitic peoples of Mesopotamia.{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
^"Iraq's Church Bombers vs. Muhammad"(HTML) (in English). Christianity Today. In the 16th century, a major segment of the Nestorian church united with Rome while retaining its ancient liturgy. They are now called the Chaldean Church, to which most Assyrian Christians belong.{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
^“Arabs and Christians? Christians in the Middle East” by Antonie Wessels.
“In 1551, the Assyrian community refused to accept the appointment of Shim’un VII Denka as Patriarch of the Church of the East. They sent a monk, Yohannan Sulaqa, to Rome, where he was appointed Patriarch of Babylon and head of the first church in the Middle East to unite with Rome. While the name Assyrian refers to an ethnic identity, the name Chaldean refers to the (Catholic) ‘rite’. He later died as a martyr in Diyarbekr (Eastern Turkey) at the hands of the anti-Catholic community. In 1672 more than a century after the failure of Patriarch Sulaqa to effect the ‘return’ of the Nestorians, a separate Chaldean rite was organized.”
^"The Church of the East and the Church of England" by J. F. Coakley,
“On the other side, the British government was now making strenuous efforts to satisfy the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations that Iraq was ready for self-government and minorities had nothing to fear. Briefed by the League of Nations Union, who shared the anxieties about minorities in Iraq, Lang in July put down a question in the House of Lords; to ask what provisions has been made in the Treaty between Great Britain and Iraq signed at Baghdad on June 30th for the security of the Assyrians, (Nestorian and Chaldean): and whether, in view of the serious reports as to the conditions in which the Assyrians are now living, the Government will take all necessary measures to secure the improvement of those conditions."
^“The Discovery of an Assyrian Archaeologist” by David B. Perley (An Assyrian from the Syrian Orthodox Church), An analysis and review of Rassam's book 'Ashur and the land of Nimrud'.
On Assyrian Sects Quote: In the realm of sects, his journeys [Rassam’s] revealed that the chief Christian sects or millets (subject nationalities) were Assyrians or Chaldean Nestorians, Chaldean Catholic, Syrian Jacobite, and Syrian Catholic, all of whom are of Assyrian origin … No matter how miscontrue the Assyrian malaise in the intolerable confusion of titles, as do most clerics who originated it, sustain, support, and cherish it now—the Chaldeans are Assyrians! Rassam’s pronouncements are on record. Exclaimed he (page 168): “What more natural, the, that they should have applied to them the title of Chaldean, to which they have some claim nationally, in virtue of their Assyrian descent?” unquote.
^“Assyrian-Chaldean Christians in Eastern Turkey and Iran” by Dr. J. C .J. Sanders
Dr. Sanders made many journeys -on his own or together with students- to towns in Eastern Turkey such as Seert and Van, which are mentioned in this atlas, and from those to Syria via Nisibis, the town of Saint Ephrem the Syrian (ت. 373). He also made occasional visits to Northern Iraq, to the towns of Alqosh and Amadiya near the border with Turkey. He often stayed at the Assyrian-catholic, or Chaldean, monastery of Rabban Hormizd, where he was kindly accommodated, sometimes in a cave
^The Assyrian Star / No. 5, September-October issue 1974.
Mar Rafael BeDaweed, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, said in an interview; " ... Personally, my family became Chaldean only some 100 years ago, my grandfather Daweed was a Nestorian priest, and the same is true with all the rest of us ..." " ... we need to differenciate between nationality and Church, between church and politics ... the Chaldean title for us does not mean ethnicity or nationality, historically there is not an Assyrian religion. True Assyrianism is an ethnicity and we all are Assyrians. We could be Assyrians ethnicly, but we are Chaldeans religiously. We can not have our Church associated with ethnicity or nationality."
^Iraqi Assyrian Christians in London” by Dr. Madawi Al-Rasheed. The establishment of the Chaldean Church was an attempt to divide the Assyrian Church of the East and the Assyrian nation. One writer shows how this took place: In 1551 Mar Youkhana Solaka, the bishop of Mosul who did not agree with the hereditary succession in one family and wanted the Patriarch to be elected by a council of bishops (such elections were held before the 14th century), went to Rome and he was ordained by the Pope as the Patriarch of Babylon. This Mar Solaka tried to affiliate his group with the Roman Catholic Church. This is the first division perceived to have taken place among Assyrians. Another bishop Mar Yousip joined the Roman Catholic Church and was ordained in 1681 by the Pope as the ‘Chaldean Patriarch’. According to the same source, the ‘Patriarch of Babylon’ and the ‘Chaldean Patriarch’ were joined together under the title ‘the Patriarch of Chaldean over Babylon’. The author asserts: It is a historic fact that both names ‘Patriarch of Babylon’ and ‘Patriarch of Chaldean’ were branded by the Pope of Rome on a portion of the Assyrian Nation, seeking protection from the West, in an attempt to divide the ancient Assyrian Church.”
^The Baquba Refugee Camp”, by Brigadier-Gen. H. H. Austin, 1920, London.
“It may not be out of place, therefore, to point out that there were exceeding few Roman Catholic Assyrians or “Chaldeans” as they are generally termed when they embraced Rome, among the refugees at Baquba. The very large majority of the Roman Catholic Assyrians in the Mosul vilayet did not join the mountaineers and fight against the Turks; and in consequence were permitted by the Turks to continue to dwell practically unmolested in their homes about Mosul.
^The Tragedy of the Assyrians”, by Lt.-Col. R. S. Stafford, 1933, London.
“In the 16th century one of the rival candidates to the Patriarchate appealed to the Pope against another. One hundred years of hesitations and refusals to submit completely to Rome followed, and in 1680 Pope Innocent XI appointed the third Patriarchate, Mar Yusuf, who lived at Diarbekir. One hundred years later Mar Elia of the plains, the rival to Mar Shimun of the mountains, submitted to Rome. His followers came to be called Chaldean Uniates, and were recognized by the Turks as a ‘Millet’ in 1845.”
^“The Flickering Light of Asia”, by Rev. Joel E. Werda, (Evangelical Church) second edition 1990, Chicago, p. 199 “The Assyrians are better known by their three Ecclesiastical designations representing the three main divisions: (A) The Nestorians … (B) The Chaldeans predominate in the province of Mosul, abounding also in the various locations in lower Mesopotamia down to the Persian gulf, with Mosul as their patriarchal See.” (C) The Jacobites …”
^al-Ashoriyoon wa al-mas-ala al-Ashoriya fi al-‘Asir al-Hadeeth (The Assyrians and the Assyrian Question in the Modern Era)”, by K. B. Matviev, 1989, Damascus, p. 35.
“On April 9, 1553, Sulaqa was consecrated patriarch of Babylon. The new church united with the Roman Catholic Church as it preserved its own private daily life….the followers of this church were called the Chaldean Assyrians, and Sulaqa returned to Beth Nahren hoping to unite all Assyrians under the Roman Catholic Church.”
^Politics and Minorities In The Near East: Reasons for the Explosion” by Laurent Chabry & Annie Chabry, translated from the French by Dr. Thoqan Qarqoot, 1991. Under the sub-Chapter III “The Assyrians (Nestorians and Chaldeans)”, we read: We find the 550,000 Assyrians today mainly in north of Iraq (areas of Mosul, Arbil, Kirkuk) & Baghdad. These Assyrians are descendents of the Assyrians of pre-history who established in the early history a Semitic kingdom in Mesopotamia at the 21st century B.C. The Assyrians are a unique race with a unique national Christian religion and divided today into two parts; The Nestorians, not united with Rome, under "the Assyrian Church of the East", and the Chaldeans, split from the Nestorians, united with Rome, and therefore Catholic, since 1553 and under "The Chaldean Catholic Church".
^“أقليات شمال العراق؛ بين القانون والسياسة” بقلم د. جميل ميخا شي يوكا. “The Assyrians themselves are broken into Nestorians (not connected to Rome or the Catholic Church and are the minority) and are members of the Assyrian Church of the East, and besides the Nestorians there are the Chaldeans, a majority who came out from the Nestorians and are connected with the Catholic Church in Rome.” (a translation from Arabic)
^“The Eastern Christian Churches” by Ronald Roberson.
“In 1552, when the new patriarch was elected, a group of Assyrian bishops refused to accept him and decided to seek union with Rome. They elected the reluctant abbot of a monastery, Yohannan Sulaqa, as their own patriarch and sent him to Rome to arrange a union with the Catholic Church. In early 1553 Pope Julius III proclaimed him Patriarch Simon VIII “of the Chaldeans” and ordained him a bishop in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 9, 1553. The new Patriarch returned to his homeland in late 1553 and began to initiate a series of reforms. But opposition, led by the rival Assyrian Patriarch, was strong. Simon was soon captured by the pasha of Amadiya, tortured and executed in January 1555. Eventually Sulaqa’s group returned to the Assyrian Church of the East, but for over 200 years, there was much turmoil and changing of sides as the pro- and anti-Catholic parties struggled with one another. The situation finally stabilized on July 5, 1830, when Pope Pius VIII confirmed Metropolitan Youhanna (John) Hormizd as head of all Chaldean Catholics, with the title of Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, with his see in Mosul.”
^“History of Syria” by Prof. Philip Hitti, professor of Semitic literature at Princeton University.
“Before the rise of Islam the Syrian Christian Church [Assyrian] had split into several communities. There was first the East Syrian Church or the Church of the East. This communion, established in the late second century, claims uninterrupted descent in its teachings, liturgy, consecration and tradition from the time the Edessene King Abgar allegedly wrote to Christ asking him to relieve him of an incurable disease and Christ promised to send him one of his disciples after his ascension. This is the church erroneously called Nestorian, after the Cilician Nestorius, whom it antedates by about two and a half centuries. The term Nestorian was applied to it at a late date by Roman Catholics to convey the stigma of heresy in contradistinction to those of its members who joined the Catholic Church as Uniats and received the name Chaldeans.”
^“The British Betrayal of the Assyrians” by Yousuf Malek (A member of the Chaldean Catholic Church).
a. “The Assyrians, although representing but one single nation as the direct heirs of the ancient Assyrian Empire as indicated in chapter 1, are now doctrinally divided, inter sese, into five principle ecclesiastically designated religious sects with their corresponding hierarchies and distinct church governments, namely, Nestorian, Jacobite, Chaldean, Maronite and Syrian Catholic…” b. “The Chaldeans are of the same stock and family as the Assyrians, and their language is one. Like the Assyrians, they have preserved their mother-tongue. In the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Missions, which were at work in Syria, extended their missionary work to Basrah to the south of Iraq and then to the north, in the Mosul regions. To avoid the oppression of their rulers, the Chaldeans were forced by circumstances to seek the then powerful protection of Rome. Until a century ago, Rome was able to win over a considerable number of so-called Chaldeans.” c. “The term, “Chaldean”, was originally given to the members of the Church of the East, who lived in Iraq, first, for their geographical situation, and second, for the historical surroundings.”
^“Reasons for the backwardness of the Assyrians” by Professor Ashur Yousuf, member of the Syrian Orthodox Church, published on October 20, 1914. “The hindrance to the development of the Assyrians was not so much the attacks from without as it was from within--the doctrinal and sectarian disputes and struggles like monophysitism and dyophsitism is a good example. These caused division, spiritually and nationally, among the people who quarreled among themselves even to the point of shedding blood. To this very day the Assyrians are still known by various names, such as Nestorians, Jacobites, Chaldeans…”
^“Iraq: A Country Study”, Edited by Helen Chapin Metz.
“The Assyrians are considered to be the third largest ethnic minority in Iraq. Although official Iraqi statistics do not refer to them as an ethnic group, they are believed to represent about 133,000 persons, or less than 1 percent of the population. Descendants of ancient Mesopotamian peoples, they speak Aramaic. The Assyrians live mainly in the major cities and in the rural areas of northeastern Iraq, where they tend to be professionals and businessmen or independent farmers. They are Christians, belonging to one of four churches: the Chaldean (Uniate), the Nestorian, the Jacobite or Syrian Orthodox, and the Syrian Catholic.”
^“L’Orient Syrien” – issue 10 by J. M. Fiey.
“The Christians who lived for generations in the land of Ashur, Kalah (Nimrud), and Nineveh have the right, more than anybody else, to be called Assyrians (Ashuriyeen) even though they are religiously known as Chaldeans and Sir-yan.”
^“Aqaliyat fi sharq al-mutawasit” (Minorities East of the Mediterranean) by Fa’iz Sara. “Many vary on calling the Ashuriyeen (Assyrians), who are the most ancient peoples in the region and numerous titles are present including Athouriyeen (Atourayeh). Few refer to the Chaldeans or Nestorians, and at times al-Siryan too, as Ashuriyeen (Assyrians). All these names refer to one title Ashuriyeen (Assyrian) whose various titles were mentioned in historical and religious sources.
^“Fi Al-Asil wa Al-Fasil wa Mulahadat Ukhra” (Roots, Classifications, and Other Remarks) by Dr. Saadi Al-Malih.
"Lets get back again to the names given to this nation of Al-Ashuriyon, Al-Siryan, Nestorians, Catholics, Christians and now Chaldeans, they all were fabricated to indicate this nation’s religious belief since groups of Assyrians switched their religious beliefs so many times."
هذه المقالة تضم نصاً من مطبوعة هي الآن مشاع: هربرمان, تشارلز, ed. (1913). الموسوعة الكاثوليكية. Robert Appleton Company. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |1=, |coauthors=, and |month= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
هذه المقالة تضم نصاً من مطبوعة هي الآن مشاع: هربرمان, تشارلز, ed. (1913). الموسوعة الكاثوليكية. Robert Appleton Company. 
