Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, in a statement released today, congratulated the country’s Assyrian community on Kha b-Nisan, the Assyrian New Year.

Pashinyan thanked the country’s estimated 3,000 Assyrians for working for the development of Armenia and wished them success and well-being in the coming year.

Kha b-Nisan (First of April) symbolizes revival and the start of a new life, historically linked to the spring equinox and the blooming of nature.

There were 6,000 Assyrians in Armenia before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but because of Armenia's struggling economy during the 1990s, the population has since been cut by half, as many have emigrated to Russia or Ukraine. Today, Assyrians are the third largest ethnic minority in Armenia following Yazidis and Russians. Most Assyrians today live in the country’s rural areas.

Today's Assyrian population in Armenia are mostly descendants of settlers who arrived in the early nineteenth century during the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828), when thousands of refugees fled their homeland in the areas around Urmia in Persia.

Armenia’s Electoral Code guarantees representation of national minorities in the National Assembly. The four largest communities -- Yezidis, Russians, Assyrians and Kurds -- have reserved seats in parliament.