Pope hopes int’l community to facilitate Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement
By Rashid Shirinov
Pope Francis voiced hope for the help of international community to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Pope announced about this at a meeting with representatives of Azerbaijani government, social organizations and the diplomatic corps at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku on October 2.
"Mindful also of this country, I wish to express my heartfelt closeness to those who have had to leave their land and to the many people who suffer the effects of bloody conflicts," Pope Francis said. He further expressed hope that the international community is able “to offer unfailingly its indispensable help” to resolve the conflict.
The Pope invited everyone to take advantage of any opportunity to begin a new stage of stable peace in the region and to achieve a satisfactory solution to this conflict.
“I am confident that, with the help of God, and the good will of those involved, the Caucasus will be a place where, through dialogue and negotiation, disputes and differences will be resolved and overcome,” Pope Francis said.
The Pope further said that this "gateway between East and West," as the region was named by Saint John Paul II when he visited Azerbaijan in 2002, will also become a gateway open to the peace, and an example which can be addressed to resolve old and new conflicts.
Pope Francis regretted that the world is experiencing the tragedy of many conflicts fuelled by intolerance, which, in turn, are provoked by violent ideologies and actual denial of the rights of the weakest.
"In order to effectively oppose these dangerous deviations, we need to promote a culture of peace, which is fostered by an untiring willingness for dialogue and by the awareness that there is no reasonable alternative to patiently and assiduously searching for shared solutions by means of committed and sustained negotiations," the Pope stressed.
According to him, just as the harmony between different sectors should be promoted within a country, so too between states it is necessary to pursue wisely and courageously a path that leads to genuine progress and freedom of the peoples.
"In this way, peoples will be spared grave suffering and painful wounds, which are difficult to heal," Pope Francis hoped.
Chairman of the Caucasian Muslims Office (CMO) Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade welcomed the statement of the Pope about the necessity of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict peacefully.
“The Azerbaijani people, state and its leader invariably want a just solution of the conflict peacefully, within the norms of international law,” Sheikh ul-Islam said while speaking at a meeting with Pope Francis in the Heydar Mosque on the same day.
“Under the mediation of the Russian, Georgian Orthodox Church, world Council of churches, I repeatedly met the spiritual leader of Armenia for the peaceful settlement of the conflict. Together we said that this conflict is not of religious nature,” he mentioned.
Sheikh ul-Islam voiced hope that the Pope will assist to a fair solution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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