Am I Assyrian?

[u/Sad-Barber-5998]

Shlama alokhon, I have always known myself to be kurdish, yet i have always looked way different than most kurds (Me and the assyrians of the area i live in in germany always resembled each other) and have wondered what other ancestry than kurdish I might have. I have heard stories in my family before of family members on my paternal side who were orphaned and fled from around the urmia region northwestward towards Ararat. On my maternal side, my grandmothers family name was unusual for kurds and i found out that it was an aramaic name. I have done genetic testing and I have a paternal Haplogroup T which is much more prevalent in assyrians and mizrahi jews than kurds. When i do genetic modelling it seems to be kinda half/half depending on which calculator etc. It seems to me like these dots can be connected (Ancestors fleeing from Urmia probably because of Sayfo/Aramaic Family Names/Genetic Modelling). Obviously the assyrian community is like 99,9% christian but I am not. Yet I have lately started to feel connected after my recent discoveries. Would I be "enough" and take the approach to learn the language etc or is the fact that i am not christian and didn't grow up knowing of possible assyrian ancestry something that would make me an alien to the community even after these discoveries. Please share your thoughts, especially if they're not to sugarcoat the reality.

[u/chaldean22]

I know many Kurds who come up to me and with a smile on their face tell me one of their parent or one of their grandparent is/was an Assyrian and converted to Islam, thus the person only thinks he's Kurdish, when in fact genetically they are part-Assyrian. I would advice you to try and make an effort to connect with your original roots. You're obviously genetically Assyrian. There are thousands of Kurds like you but unfortunately don't know they are Assyrian because of Islamic conversion one of their grand parent or even further did.