How many Assyrians were there in the Mid East in 1914?

So, I was discussing the tragedy of Armenians during WWI, and claims of another Ottoman genocide, this time on Assyrians appeared. The numbers - "hundreds of thousand after WWI in Iraq according to the British" seem too be way overinflated, because if there was a genocide and there were 400 thousand of them left, and "the mortality was 2/3" then either they were a majority in northern Iraq pre-war, which i find impossible (but then again, what do I know?), or it was the least efficient genocide I've ever heard of and mortality was way lower than 2/3, or the numbers and the whole thing is a fiction.

I've tried to find some sources, but couldn't find anything in available libraries, and all google found was that there was over a million of them, and that they were genocided by those dastardly Ottomans.

This place speaks of 30 thousands christians in the vilayet of Mosul, but the whole vilayet is supposed to be 300 thousand, which seems too low.

So, does anybody really know how many of them lived in Iraq and the whole Ottoman Mid-East pre-war? Some sources would be great.

Also, if as a newbie I'm allowed to ask, I would rather this thread not to devolve (is this a correct sentence?) into a flamewar about the Armenian tragedy, please keep it on the number of Assyrians in the Empire.
 
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Typo

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I think they were 10% of the population in Iraq, try the lost history of christianity
 

yourworstnightmare

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In a moment this thread will be locked since Turkish fanboys will turn up claiming there never was Assyrians in the Middle East and neve will be, while the other fanboys will scream OMG! it's teh evol genocide!
 
I think they were 10% of the population in Iraq, try the lost history of christianity

If you mean the book by Philip Jenkins, it seems it's unavailable in libraries here, nor in any of the larger polish book stores. 10% seems more reasonable - that would give them like 450-500 thousand population in Iraq, so they'd be like 30% in the North. But, to be honest, that's still quite a lot.

In a moment this thread will be locked since Turkish fanboys will turn up claiming there never was Assyrians in the Middle East and neve will be, while the other fanboys will scream OMG! it's teh evol genocide!

I realise this may happen, but I specifically asked to keep it on topic so it doesn't, and you're not helping.
 
Well, during the Simele massacre and related massacres in post-war Iraq, about 3000 people were killed, which gives you an idea of the population density around Mosul.
 
Well it gives some idea of how many of them were around in the early 30s, but I'm interested in pre-WWI situation, and I'd rather some data, like the Ottoman registers - couldn't find it, maybe I'm just bad at google, it's rather possible.:eek:
 

yourworstnightmare

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Wikipedia has just an article about Assyrians massacred during WW1. The numbers are of course exaggerated, since the article is obviously written by Assyrians. However they might lean you in the right direction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_genocide

This book might help you if you can get your hands on it.
http://www.cambriapress.com/abi/9781604975833abi.pdf

Another wikipedia article. Really doesn't say anything the last one didn't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrians_and_Syriacs_in_Turkey

Another book that probably can answer your questions:
http://www.amazon.com/Ottoman-Population-1830-1914-Demographic-Characteristics/dp/0299091600
 
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I've seen both Wikipedia articles, but, you know, I have doubts about them being non-biased. As for the books, none of them are available in Poland, and to be honest as a poor East-European student I can't afford buying a 100+$ book from Amazon just to satisfy my curiosity :eek:

Well, it seems the topic is even more obscure than I thought, thanks for help.
 
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