in 1900, assyrians numbered over 76,000 in northwestern iran, constituting over a quarter of the azerbaijan province's population and were the largest non-muslim majority in urmia. of the 300 villages around urmia, 60 were exclusively assyrians and 60 were mixed villages with assyrian, armenian, and azeri communities. nevertheless, there were over 115 documented assyrian villages to the west of lake urmia prior to 1918.