Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, result of Armenia's aggressive policy
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan is a country where the representatives of different religions and nationalities live together in peace. The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is not of religious nature, but the result of aggressive policy of Armenia.
This remark was made by Chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations Mubariz Gurbanli at a press conference after the meeting of the Council of Europe on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue titled "Intercultural dialogue: interaction between culture and religion."
Gurbanli said Azerbaijan is known in the world as an exemplary country in terms of tolerance and representatives of the Council of Europe hold positive positions on religious tolerance in Azerbaijan.
"Currently, about 30,000 Armenians live in Azerbaijan," he added.
Gurbanli believes the occupation policy of Armenia is indeed not only an attack of one European country to another, but a serious threat to global peace and security.
He also highly appreciated the meeting of the Council of Europe on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue titled "Intercultural dialogue: interaction between culture and religion" taking place in Baku.
He said during the presidency of Azerbaijan to the Council of Europe, the country has held and will continue to hold a number of events on intercultural dialogue.
Gurbanli also added that the various religious communities freely operate in Azerbaijan. The representatives of the Council of Europe have developed a positive opinion of tolerance in Azerbaijan.
Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.
Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.