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President of Azerbaijan: â€œWe are concerned over the rise of Islamophobic tendencies, insult of Islamic holies in some countriesâ€

16 October 2012 09:11 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov-APA. â€œWe are concerned over the rise of Islamophobic tendencies, insult of Islamic holies in some countriesâ€, Azerbaijanâ€™s President Ilham Aliyev said making a keynote speech at the 12th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization in Baku, APA reports.
Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan would do its best for enhancement of ECOâ€™s activity.
â€œThis summit is taking place on the eve of a very important date. In November, 1992, seven countries became members of ECO, Azerbaijan was one of them. Azerbaijan has always attached great importance to ECO. We are united by common history, political and economic interests. I think that it is a great tradition that our organization has been formed basing on this historical heritage. We are doing our best to strengthen our activity on promotion of Islamic culture. In 2018 Nakhchivan city of Azerbaijan will become the capital of Islamic culture,â€ President said.
Speaking on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, President said that ethnic cleansing policy was pursued against Azerbaijanis: â€œArmenia is not implementing the UN resolutions. Armenians committed the Khojaly genocide in 1992. Three states have already recognized this genocide and one of them is the ECO member Pakistan. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has never been and cannot be a theme for discussion. Of course, this invasion and injustice have also caused damage to our economyâ€.

Speaking about the socio-economic development in Azerbaijan, the Head of State underlined that the geographical position of Azerbaijan allowed the country to become a regional centre in transport sphere: â€œBaku-Tbilisi-Karsâ€ railway, which will be fully constructed in the near future, will unite ECO member-statesâ€, President said.