The project, called Syriac-History, was launched in 2023 as an educational and media initiative under the umbrella of Assyrian Youth e. V., a Germany-based organization. Its mission is to present the history, culture and identity of the Suryoye, an indigenous people of Beth Nahrain (Mesopotamia), in a way that is factual, accessible and compelling to younger audiences.
Its founders argue that the absence of Assyrian history from mainstream digital platforms has left a vacuum, one often filled by fragmented narratives, emotional oversimplifications or political distortions.
"Many young people know isolated terms, but not the connections," members of the project explained in an interview with SyriacPress. "They recognize names and events, but not the historical lines that connect them."
History in the age of algorithms
The idea for Syriac-History emerged from a series of workshops and seminars with young people from diverse backgrounds. The organizers quickly realized that traditional educational formats were no longer sufficient--especially in an online environment where identity, memory and historical interpretation are increasingly shaped by social media.
Rather than retreating from that reality, the project embraced it.
Since its launch, Syriac-History has developed a range of digital formats tailored to contemporary platforms. These include short-form video series highlighting ancient cities, historical figures and cultural achievements; interactive quizzes on topics such as the Sayfo Genocide of 1915, architecture and early civilizations; and storytelling formats that explore church history, literature and collective memory.
One of its most notable productions is a 15-minute documentary film on the Sayfo, the mass killing of Assyrian, Armenian, and Greek (Rûm) Christians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire--an event that remains largely absent from international historical discourse.
More recently, the project has experimented with artificial intelligence--generated music, producing songs that narrate historical themes in emotional and accessible ways. The aim, organizers say, is not entertainment for its own sake, but another gateway to engagement.
"History can be painful, proud, tragic or hopeful," they noted. "Music carries those layers in a way that text alone sometimes cannot."
A responsibility to memory
The motivation behind Syriac-History is both historical and generational. On one level, it reflects a sense of responsibility toward collective memory, particularly in relation to cultural loss, displacement and unrecognized trauma. On another, it responds to a recurring encounter with young people who express genuine interest in their heritage but lack reliable entry points.
"If history is not told," the organizers warned, "it is replaced by myths, half-knowledge or external interpretations."
Syriac-History positions itself as an alternative: fact-based, dialogical and deliberately non-ideological. Its editorial approach draws on established historical works, including The History of the Suryoye, alongside cross-referenced academic studies. The emphasis, they say, is always on plausibility, traceability and ethical responsibility.
Built on volunteer labor, looking for support
For now, the project operates largely on volunteer work, personal contributions and limited private funding--a model its founders openly acknowledge is unsustainable in the long term.
To address this, Syriac-History is developing a sponsorship and support program intended to finance technology, software, production tools and educational formats. Transparency and clear allocation of funds, they emphasize, are non-negotiable principles.
They are also seeking non-financial support, including expertise, partnerships and access to wider networks. The project describes itself not as a competitor to existing initiatives, but as a complementary platform within a broader cultural ecosystem.
Looking toward 2026
Among its goals for the coming year are the creation of a permanent youth working group, the launch of an online shop to support the project and acknowledge sponsors, and the publication of historically grounded blog articles distributed through a newsletter.
Plans are also underway to expand musical and audiovisual content into at least two additional languages, an effort to reach diasporic communities beyond German-speaking audiences.
In the long term, the founders envision Syriac-History as a permanent educational and media platform for young people and anyone seeking a serious engagement with Assyrian history.
Their guiding principles are simple but demanding: to make history understandable without simplifying it; to strengthen identity without politicizing it; and to share knowledge without gatekeeping.
"Syriac-History is not a finished project," they said. "It is a growing space, for knowledge, memory and the future."
By the end of 2026, they hope to look back not only on a successful digital platform, but on the emergence of a youth movement, one confident enough in its history to tell it, in modern form, to the world.
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