Watch on Soap2day. Of the 1.5 million Assyrians living in Iraq in 2003, only 250,000 have remained there until today. A large majority has fled their homes, seeing no immediate end to war and terror. The Assyrians have been the guardians of the civilisation for eight thousand years. With their disappearance, the Middle East is losing one of its fundamental identities, while the world is losing part of the human race.