The world community should take steps to stop persecution of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Rossiya-24 TV channel, urging to raise a voice for ironing out this problem, TASS reported.

According to Lavrov, the Foreign Ministry and the Russian Orthodox Church have many joint projects, and one of them is the most topical – taking particular steps on protecting Christians, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.

A special forum in support of Christians is held jointly with the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate on the sidelines of the events of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

"[The forum] brings together partners from the Vatican, the Holy See, the foreign ministers of Armenia, Hungary, Belarus, Lebanon and other countries, which see a risk for further normal, calm and safe existence of Christians in the Middle East," Lavrov said.

"Hundreds of thousands of them have fled after democracy was imposed there. At first in Iraq, then in Libya and Syria. The Christian population is mostly suffering from the Syrian conflict. The Syrian Arab Republic is one of the cradles of Christianity. It is necessary to raise a voice so that the international community does not only pay attention to this problem, but takes particular measures to curb the persecution of Christians," Lavrov stressed.