Labelled by the European Catholic Church as heretics in the 5th century , they founded Church of the East and Syriac Church in the 1st century AD ( erroneously renamed '' Nestorian '' and '' Jacobite '' by Western Christians ) . They have kept alive one of the oldest Christian liturgies ; they translated ancient Greek texts first into Syriac and vice versa , and then into Arabic , and evangelised China , India and Mongolia during the Golden Age of the Arabic Empire . In 1915 , together with the Armenians and Greeks , they were the victims of ethnically and religiously motivated genocide perpetrated by the Turkish Ottoman Empire and many fled to Europe , the Russian Empire and the United States . Again , they were slaughtered in Iraq in 1933 in the Simele massacre . Even if various names are used to describe them - Assurayu , Assyrians , and later derivatives such as Chaldo-Assyrians , Syriacs , Atoraye , Assouri , Assuristani , Suraye , Suryoyo , East Syrians , - they share the same culture , religion and language , originate from the same region , have the same distinct genetic profile , and they belong to one people
Simele massacre
Simele massacre
The Last Assyrians