This study examines the historical persistence and identity strategies of the Syriac minority in Turkey within the framework of modern state formation. Moving beyond Fredrik Barth's interactional boundary models toward ethno-symbolist perspectives and John A. Armstrong's "nostalgia syndrome," it argues that the community leverages a "myth-symbol complex"—rooted in the memory of being among the earliest Christian communities and a consciousness of ancient Assyrian descent—as a strategic cultural mechanism to resist assimilation. Survival of Syriac identity emerges from the interplay between historical memory and the adaptive reinterpretation of symbolic capital.