Erbil, Iraq -- As more Christians are displaced from their homes in Iraq, they believe some groups and international intelligence services are masterminding a "plot" to drive them out of the country, just as with the forced expulsion of the Jewish minority in the past. Iraqi Christians have recently come under a new wave of attacks in Baghdad and other violent parts of the country, causing many of them to migrate to the much safer Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq or to live abroad. Johnson Siyawash Eyo, deputy head of the National Chaldean-Siryac-Assyrian Council, says that, out of the 1.5 million Christians that lived in Iraq until the 1990s, only 450,000 now remain in the country. "Some parties who have an incorrect understanding of Christians have a plot to eradicate Iraq of its Christians," Eyo said. He expressed fears that Iraq's Christian population might share the same fate as the Iraqi Jews of the middle of the last century who numbered in the tens of thousands and are now almost invisible. "Every day around 20 to 30 Christian families leave the country," said Eyo. "Nine hundred Christians have been killed over the past seven years. All this has led to a fear among Christians that they are trying to impose the fate of the Jews on us and erase us from Iraq." He accused several international bodies, in cooperation with various countries' intelligence agencies, of "trying to eradicate the Christians in the Middle East. They have started with Iraq but if their project succeeds in Iraq, they will continue with other countries [in the region]." Eyo said that, instead of granting asylum to Christian refugees, Western governments should send funds to Christians in Iraq "to make them politically and economically stronger." Iraq's Christian population stood at around 149,000 after the 1947 census, roughly 3.7 percent of the country's population. In 1987, there were around one million Christians in Iraq out of a population of 18.5 million people, over 5 percent of the population. But now the number of Christians is estimated at under half a million. With the country's Christians being under attack from extremist groups, many of them have placed their hopes in the idea of creating an autonomous Christian zone. Romeo Hakkari, the secretary of the Bet-Nahrain Democratic Party, claimed around 70 percent of Iraqi Christians supported the notion of "autonomy for Christians." He said the attempt to establish an autonomous Christian zone would be very difficult and that "for this autonomy we rely a lot on the support of the Kurds and other secular and democratic Iraqis." Hakkari, also a former member of the Kurdistan Parliament, said Christians had conveyed their demands for autonomy to all the post-war governments in Iraq since 2003. "But they have not given any answer yet, although they have said that they agree with the idea," said Hakkari. Hakkari believes autonomy is the only way to "save Christians from tyranny and terrorism." He added that the Christians' situation in Kurdistan could not be compared to the rest of the country. Many Christians have sought an autonomous zone in the Christian-dominated areas of the disputed Nineveh province that is under de facto Kurdish control. Hakkari called for the implementation of Article 140, an article of the Iraqi Constitution proposing a formula to resolve the issue of disputed regions. The idea of creating a Christian security division for Christians living in violent places has also been raised. "This force needs to be created as soon as possible in order to protect the holy sites of Christians," said Hakkari. "This is an appropriate solution because today it is only the language of force that is understood." He strongly criticized Western countries who gave asylum to Christians describing it as "a stab in the Christians' backs and an attack against Christians' rights." "Unfortunately the act of those countries giving asylum to Christians is like them participating in the extremists' attempts to evacuate Iraq of its Christians," Hakkari said. After the attacks on the Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani suggested that a Christian province should be formed within Nineveh province. But this idea has been opposed by leaders like Galita Shaba, a senior official in the Assyrian Democratic Movement. "No province should be established for Christians in Iraq on an ethnic or sectarian basis," Shaba said. "This would cause negative reactions and also mean erasing and cutting off Christians from other ethnicities and religions in Iraq." The idea of an autonomous Christian area in Kurdistan was originally put forward by Sarkis Aghajan, a powerful Christian figure in Kurdistan close to the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Attempts to wipe out Christians from Iraq have always been an issue, whether made by Islamic extremist groups or other anti-Western countries. Luay Matta, an advisor to Emmanuel Delly, the Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldean Catholics, for instance, was unhesitant to accuse al-Qaeda of trying to "eliminate Iraq's Christians." "But we don't know if this is backed by other regional parties or just by al Qaeda and other extremist groups," Matta said.