section_path: Genetics
section_name: Genetics
paragraph_text: Genetics
  
  Genetic studies on the modern day people of Iraq are limited and generally restricted to analysis of classical keys due to the country's modern political instability, although lately, there have been several published studies displaying a genealogical connection between all Iraqis and the neighboring countries, across religious, ethnic and linguistic barriers. Studies indicate that the different ethno-religious groups of Iraq (Mesopotamia) share significant similarities in genetics and that Mesopotamian Arabs, who make up the majority of Iraqis, are more genetically similar to Iraqi Kurds than other Arab populations in the Middle East and Arabia.
  
  There were no significant differences in Y-DNA variation were observed among Iraqi Mesopotamian Arabs, Assyrians, or Kurds. Modern genetic studies indicate that Iraqi Mesopotamian Arabs are more related to Iraqi-Assyrians than Iraqi Kurds.
  
  Dogan et. al (2017) states that contemporary Assyrian and Yazidis from northern Iraq might "have stronger continuity with the original genetic stock of the Mesopotamian people, which possibly provided the basis for the ethnogenesis of various subsequent Near Eastern populations." Among northern Iraqi Assyrians, J and R subclades were observed at 36% and 41% respectively, where R1a, R1b, J1 and J2 sub-clades accounted for 11%, 30%, 12% and 24%. For Yazidis, R haplogroup subclades dominate, where R1a and R1b account for 9% and 21%, respectively. The high prevalence of R and J macrohaplogroups is attributed to pre- Last Glacial Maximum events in the Near East.
  
  Many historians and anthropologists provide strong circumstantial evidence to presuppose that Iraq's Marsh Arabs share very strong links to the ancient Sumerians.
  
  While other studies indicate that the Iraqi-Assyrian population was found to be significantly related to other Iraqis, especially Mesopotamian Arabs, likely due to the assimilation of indigenous Assyrians with other people groups who occupied and settled Mesopotamia after the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.