Assyrians, Syriacs and Chaldeans lived together with Kurds for centuries. They had various symbiotic social and economic relations until the genocide of the Christians duringWorld War I. In some places there was mutual assimilation, particularly linguistic, andeven in the form of Christian participation in tribal warfare. Maintaining alliances withKurdish tribes was an important survival strategy but it set the Christians at risk of beingcaught up in persistent violence that eventually became genocidal.