Stockholm (AINA) -- Swedish media have begun to show an increasing interest in the plight of Christians of the Middle East in general and the Assyrians in particular. The large Assyrian community in Sweden, more one hundred thousand, has played an important role in raising awareness. Recently Swedish public service television aired a report on the attacks against the Copts in Egypt by Islamists and another report on the difficult circumstances Assyrians are facing in Syria because of the Islamist elements in the Syrian rebels. The main Swedish morning paper, Dagens Nyheter, featured an article today on Assyrians from Syria fleeing to their relatives in Sweden.

In a report aired on Monday evening Swedish news Aktuellt, Fredrik Malm, foreign affairs spokesman of the liberal party Folkpartiet said "Keep in mind that these Christian minorities, the Assyrians, Armenians, Copts, are actually the original inhabitants of these areas with roots going back thousands of years before Christianity. What we're seeing is a systematic attempt to cleanse the Middle East of its original inhabitants, this is a continuation of the genocide that took place in Ottoman Turkey in 1915."

The Assyrian Federation of Sweden is on a public relations campaign to inform the Swedish political elite about the plight of the Assyrians.

"We believe the Swedish government should listen to the Assyrian community," says Afram Yakoub, President of the Assyrian Federation of Sweden, "and we're working to transform political good will into policies that will have a positive effect on the non-Muslim peoples in the Middle East, especially the Assyrians."