Secularism and National Identity in 20th century Western Assyrian Music For many centuries, folk music was non-existent among the Western Assyrians of Northern Mesopotamia mostly followers of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch. Only occasionally certain familial ceremonies, such as weddings, involved singing in Armenian, Kurdish, Turkish, and sporadically in Arabic, depending of the area of settlement. Singing in the Assyrian language was traditionally restricted to spiritual ceremonies within the walls of ancient churches and monasteries. Folk music and singing, on the other hand, were seen as acts of heresy contributing to the contamination and destruction of what was considered the holy tongue of Jesus Christ, a belief deeply rooted in church tradition. This was in striking contrast with the traditions of fellow Assyrians of the Eastern Churches, i.e. the members of the Assyrian Apostolic Church of the East and the Catholic Church of Babylon, which have a long ancient tradition of folk music. It was with the advent of modernity and nationalistic ideas in late 19th century that this dogma was seriously questioned. While in the late 19th century Assyrian nationalism had basically been a phenomenon among intellectuals living in urban areas only, it came to flourish in the aftermath of the tragic events of World War I that had been followed by dispersion and despair. The idea of unifying Assyrians from different denominations under one umbrella led to activism among Western Assyrians centered in the town of Qamishly, located at the Syrian-Turkish border. As a consequence, the Assyrian Democratic Organization was founded in 1957 in Syria. It rapidly grew in popularity and within a few years of years, party activists concluded that ways of popularizing political messages of secularism and National identity had to be found. Oral history through music came to be considered a powerful tool and composers, musicians and singers were instructed to prepare the launch of Western Assyrian folk music. After roughly a decade, the revolutionary step was taken in 1968 by launching the very first song in the Western Assyrian dialect Turoyo.