The Assyrian population in the Ottoman Empire numbered about one million at the turn of the twentieth century and was largely concentrated in what is now Iran , Iraq and Turkey . However , researchers such as David Gaunt have noted that the Assyrian population was around 600,000 prior to World War I . There were also hundreds of thousands of Maronite Christians in Lebanon , with some Assyrian heritage but which are less often called Assyrians . There were significantly larger communities located in the regions near Lake Urmia in Persia , Lake Van ( specifically the Hakkari region ) and Mesopotamia , as well as the eastern Ottoman vilayets of Diyarbekir , Erzurum and Bitlis . Like other Christians residing in the empire , they were treated as second-class citizens and denied public positions of power . Violence directed against them prior to the First World War was not new . Many Assyrians were subjected to Kurdish brigandage and even outright massacre and forced conversion to Islam , as was the case of the Assyrians of Hakkari during the massacres of Badr Khan in the 1840s and the Massacres of Diyarbakır during the 1895 – 96 Hamidian Massacres . The Hamidiye received assurances from the Ottoman Sultan that they could kill Assyrians and Armenians with impunity , and were particularly active in Urhoy and Diyarbakir
Massacres of Diyarbakır
Massacres of Diyarbakır (1895)
Assyrian genocide