Urmia in the context of Streetlights

A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, streetlamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution became ubiquitous in developed countries in the 20th century, lights for urban streets followed, or sometimes led.

Many lamps have light-sensitive photocells or astro clocks that activate the lamp automatically when needed, at times when there is reduced ambient light compared to daytime, such as at dusk, dawn, or under exceptional cloud cover. This function in older lighting systems could be performed with the aid of a solar dial.

Terms for Syriac Christians are endonymic (native) and exonymic (foreign) terms, that are used as designations for Syriac Christians, as adherents of Syriac Christianity. In its widest scope, Syriac Christianity encompass all Christian denominations that follow East Syriac Rite or West Syriac Rite, and thus use Classical Syriac as their main liturgical language. Traditional divisions among Syriac Christians along denominational lines are reflected in the use of various theological and ecclesiological designations, both historical and modern. Specific terms such as: Jacobites, Saint Thomas Syrian Christians, Maronites, Melkites, Nasranis, and Nestorians have been used in reference to distinctive groups and branches of Eastern Christianity, including those of Syriac liturgical and linguistic traditions. Some of those terms are polysemic, and their uses (both historical and modern) have been a subject of terminological disputes between different communities, and also among scholars.

Territorially, Syriac Christians are divided in two principal groups: Syriac Christians of the Near East, and Syriac Christians of India. Terminology related to Syriac Christians of the Near East includes a specific group of ethnoreligious terms, related to various Semitic communities of Neo-Aramaic-speaking Christians, that are indigenous to modern Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine.

Suret (Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܬ, pronounced [ˈsuːrɪtʰ], [ˈsuːrɪθ]), also known as Assyrian, is any of several varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) spoken by Christians, namely Assyrians. The various NENA dialects descend from Old Aramaic, the lingua franca in the later phase of the Assyrian Empire, which slowly displaced the East Semitic Akkadian language beginning around the 10th century BC. They have been further heavily influenced by Classical Syriac, the Middle Aramaic dialect of Edessa, after its adoption as an official liturgical language of the Syriac churches, but Suret is not a direct descendant of Classical Syriac.

Suret speakers are indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia, northwestern Iran, southeastern Anatolia and the northeastern Levant, which is a large region stretching from the plain of Urmia in northwestern Iran through to the Nineveh Plains, Erbil, Kirkuk and Duhok regions in northern Iraq, together with the northeastern regions of Syria and to south-central and southeastern Turkey. Instability throughout the Middle East over the past century has led to a worldwide diaspora of Suret speakers, with most speakers now living abroad in such places as North and South America, Australia, Europe and Russia. Speakers of Suret and Turoyo (Surayt) are ethnic Assyrians and are the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia.

The Assyrian Pentecostal Church (Syriac: ܥܕܬܐ ܕܐܚܘܢܘ̈ܬܐ ܦܢܛܩܘܣܛܝ̈ܐ ܐܬܘܪ̈ܝܐ, ‘Ittā d-Akhonāwāthā Pēnṭēqosṭāyē Ātūrāyē; Persian: کلیسای پنطیکاستی آشوری), is a Reformed Eastern Christian denomination that began in ethnically Assyrian villages across the Urmia region in northwestern Iran, spreading to the Assyrians living in the adjacent cities, and from there to indigenous Assyrian communities in the Assyrian Homeland, northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey and northeastern Syria.

The indigenous Assyrian people of ancient Assyria and Upper Mesopotamia had adopted Christianity in the 1st century AD, founding the Church of the East in Assyria and Osroene (see also: Assyria, Assyrian people and Assyrian continuity). Those who converted to the Pentecostal Church (as well as the Assyrian Evangelical Church) in the 20th century were initially all members of the Assyrian Church of the East or its later 18th century AD offshoot, the Chaldean Catholic Church, whilst others had been members of the Syriac Orthodox Church or Ancient Church of the East (a 20th-century offshoot of the Assyrian Church). The vast majority of modern-day ethnic Assyrians remain adherents of these ancient indigenous Eastern Rite churches.

West Azerbaijan province (Persian: استان آذربایجان غربی) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, whose capital and largest city is Urmia.

It is in the northwest of the country, bordered by Turkey (Ağrı, Hakkâri, Iğdır and Van Provinces), Iraq (Erbil and Sulaymaniyah Governorates) and Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, as well as the Iranian provinces of East Azerbaijan, Zanjan, and Kurdistan. West Azerbaijan province is part of Region 3. It is separated from Armenia by Turkey's short border with the Azerbaijan Republic. The province covers an area of 39,487 km, or 43,660 km including Lake Urmia.

Urmia County (Persian: شهرستان ارومیه) is in West Azerbaijan province, Iran. Its capital is the city of Urmia.

Urmia Plain (Persian: جلگه ارومیه; Azerbaijani: Urmu düzü) is a region in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran. It lies between Lake Urmia to the east, and the Turkish border to the west. It contains the city of Urmia.

The inhabitants of the Urmia Plain are Azerbaijani people and Kurds with a minority of Assyrian and Armenians. The Assyrian of Urmia speak Northeastern Neo-Aramaic dialects and are religiously diverse, adhering to the East Syriac churches (mostly to the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church), and Protestantism.

The following is a list of historical and contemporary Assyrian settlements in the Middle East. This list includes settlements of Assyrians from Southeastern Turkey who left their indigenous tribal districts in Hakkari (or the historical Hakkari region), Sirnak and Mardin province due to torment, violence and displacement by Ottomans and Kurds in the First World War. Many Assyrians from Urmia, Iran were also affected and as such have emigrated and settled in other towns. Resettling again occurred during the Simele massacre in northern Iraq, perpetrated by the Iraqi military coup in the 1930s, with many fleeing to northeastern Syria.

Most modern resettlement is located in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran in the cities of Baghdad, Habbaniyah, Kirkuk, Duhok, Al-Hasakah, Tehran, Mardin and Damascus. Few Assyrian settlements exist in Turkey today and also in the Caucasus. The exodus to the cities or towns of these aforementioned countries occurred between late 1910s and 1930s. After the Iraq War in 2003, a number of Assyrians in Baghdad relocated to the Assyrian homeland in northern Iraq. Many others have immigrated to North America, Europe and Australia, especially in the late 20th century and 21st century. Currently, there are a number of settlements on this list that have been abandoned due to persecution, conflict, and other causes.

Dunsterforce was an Allied military force, established in December 1917 and named after its commander, Major-General Lionel Dunsterville. The force comprised fewer than 350 Australian, New Zealand, British and Canadian officers and NCOs, who were drawn from the Western and Mesopotamian fronts. The force was intended to organise local units in northern Iran (Persia) and South Caucasus, to replace the Tsarist army that had fought the Ottoman armies in Armenia. The Russians had also occupied northern Iran in co-operation with the British occupation of southern Iran, to create a cordon to prevent German and Ottoman agents from reaching Central Asia, Afghanistan and India.

In July 1918, Captain Stanley Savige, five officers and fifteen NCOs of Dunsterforce, set out towards Urmia and were caught up in an exodus of Armenians and Assyrians, after the town had been captured by the Ottoman Army. About 80,000 people had fled and the Dunsterforce party helped hold off the Ottoman pursuit and attempts by local Kurds to get revenge on the Assyrians for their earlier plundering. By the time the rearguard reached Bijar on 17 August, the Dunsterforce party was so worn out that only four men recovered before the war ended. A combined infantry and cavalry brigade was raised from the Assyrian survivors to re-capture Urmia and the rest of the civilians were sent to refugee camps at Baqubah near Baghdad.