MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Forcing certain types of values upon other nations, which find them alien and incompatible with their culture, raises alarm bells as can be seen, for instance, by events in the Middle East, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday as he took the floor at the opening session of the 26th International Educational Christmas Readings conference.

The motto of the conference is 'Spiritual Values and the Future of Humankind'.

"Efforts to impose values on nations, which find them to be alien and incompatible, is a highly alarming factor," the Russian top diplomat cautioned.

"We can see full well the fruits of such reckless social engineering in the Middle East or North Africa. Western meddling in the domestic affairs of sovereign nations like Iraq, Libya and Syria has produced a political, legal and in many ways spiritual vacuum that was later on filled by terrorists who have pit themselves against all of mankind."

"The followers of all religious denominations are being persecuted but especially Christians, who have been forced to flee their historic homelands in large numbers due to threats of extermination," he emphasized.