Assyrian nationalism or Assyrianism increased in popularity in the late 19th century in a climate of increasing ethnic and religious persecution of the indigenous Assyrians of the Middle East. Assyrian nationalism is the ideology of a united Assyrian people, it is to a great degree geographically as well as ethnically, religiously and linguistically based. It is espoused by almost all Mesopotamian East Aramaic speaking Assyrians. They are Christians, with most Assyrians following the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Ancient Church of the East and Protestant groups like the Assyrian Pentecostal Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church. Geographically they are the native people of northern Iraq, north western Iran, south eastern Turkey, north easte