"The images of 1914 and 2014," remarked Sabri Atman, director of the Assyrian Genocide Research Center, "are very similar indeed." As the centenary of the Sayfo, the Ottoman genocide against Assyrians, approaches, northern Iraq's ancient Christian communities are facing a similar nightmare at the hands of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS). Yet, while English-speaking peoples have become familiar with Iraq's Yazidi minority since IS' summer offensive, Assyrians worldwide are complaining of media misrepresentation of their ethnic identity. "Articles that refer to us as Christians only contribute in eradicating Assyrian identity," tweeted Assyrian actor and community activist Rosie Malek-Yonan. "When Assyrians identify themselves as Iraqi Christian," she continued, "we'll only be seen as Christian Arabs and Christian Kurds." The term "Christian" is convenient, particularly as Assyrians are targeted as such. IS, for its part, does not distinguish among Christian Assyrians, Chaldeans and Syriacs in violating their rights. The majority of Iraq's Christians, however, are not Arabs or Kurds. Many feel this ethnic aspect to the extermination of Christian communities is being evaded. As multiethnic and multiconfessional Iraq fades away, is it enough for Christians, in a show of solidarity, to reclaim the letter "N," which stands for "Nazarene" ("Christian" in Arabic), as painted on homes by IS militants to indicate where Christians live? Assyrians -- those who "speak the language of Christ" as Western media report somewhat inaccurately -- may fade from their historic homeland before the eyes of the world without even the dignity of their own self-designation. That identity is a complex one. The indigenous Christian population of the region has long been divided among different congregations. Those of the Assyrian Church of the East, also known as the Nestorian Church, identify as Assyrians. Members of the Syriac Orthodox (Jacobite) Church often refer to themselves as Syriacs or Assyrians, while Chaldean Catholics identify as Chaldeans. Followers of two smaller churches, the Syriac Catholic Church and Ancient Church of the East, refer to themselves as Syriacs and Assyrians, respectively. A small community of Muslim Assyrians, the Mhallami, lives in southern Turkey. All speak variations of Eastern Neo-Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Arabic and Hebrew, traditionally written with distinct scripts. Many Chaldo-Assyrians, as the Iraqi government refers to them, trace their heritage to the ancient Neo-Assyrian Empire. Recent moves to forge a common Assyrian, Aramaean or Syriac identity based on their shared traits have made limited progress. The intricacies of this identity debate may be one reason for the media clutching to the blanket term "Christians." Read the full story here.