Assyrians in Greece

Assyrians in Greece

Total population
6,000
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Neo-Aramaic, Greek, (some knowledge of Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish and Persian)
Religion
Ancient Church of the East, Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Church

Assyrians in Greece include migrants of Assyrian descent living in Greece. The number of Assyrians in Greece is estimated at around 6,000 people.

History and distribution

The modern history of the Assyrians in Greece dates back to the 1920s when a number of Assyrians who were settled in Greece formed the Assyrian Federation of Greece to represent their community. This organisation was officially recognised by the Greek state in 1934.

More Assyrian refugees later arrived from Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria due to instability in those countries and using Greece as an immigration bridge to western and northern European countries, like Germany and Sweden, where it is possible to get easier access to asylum and social benefits. Currently there are more than 6,000 Assyrians in Greece, around 1,000 of them are naturalised while most of the rest live in limbo with no permit. The ethnic Assyrians are mostly concentrated in suburbs of Athens, mainly in the Egaleo and Kalamaki.

See also

• Assyrians in Germany
• Assyrians in Sweden
• Assyrian diaspora