sentences:  In time, Armenia and Assyria became "Kurdistan".From the late 13th century through to the present time, Assyrian Christians have suffered both religious and ethnic persecution, including a number of massacres.Northern Iraq remained predominantly Assyrian, Eastern Aramaic speaking and Christian until the destructions of Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century, when the ancient city of Ashur was finally abandoned by the Assyrians after a 4000-year history.