Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Elkhan Suleymanov: The main target of terror groups in Iraq and Syria is Islamic religion and islamic values - INTERVIEW

Elkhan Suleymanov: The main target of terror groups in Iraq and Syria is Islamic religion and islamic values - <span style="color: red;">INTERVIEW

02 September 2014 09:20 (UTC +04:00)

- Armed confrontations resulting in death of thousand of people have been happening in the territory of Iraq and Syria for a long time. How would you characterize these armed confrontations?

- Thank you. I would like to mention that now awful and bloody events out of normal thinking now take place in Iraq and Syria. Every day hundreds of people irrespective of their racial, ethnic, and religious origin are killed, exposed to different kinds of inhuman behavior and violations in Iraq and Syria for long before the world community. Terrorist groups coming from different countries of the world carry out armed fight for political power in these territories.

- What are the main purposes and targets of these terror groups?

- We know that any terrorist activity has political purposes. In this regard, armed groups active in Iraq and Syria actually hold a terror war and their main purpose is to take control of political power and to set up a regime conforming to their ideology.

It should also be noted that among them, ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) differs from groups belonging to Al-Qaeda terrorist network with its special cruelty and currently, has occupied a lot of settlements in Iraq. As a consequence of terrorist activities of these groups, thousands of historical, cultural, and religious monuments and mosques were destroyed in Iraq and Syria.

These terrorist groups explain Islamic norms in accordance with their own purposes, by sheltering themselves behind Islam and try to justify their criminal actions through Islamic religion. However, the actions of these terrorist groups are principally directed against Islamic religion, Islamic values, and Islamic philosophy, and have nothing to do with Islamic religion. Therefore, the main target of terrorist groups, who are the participants of armed fights in Iraq and Syria territories, is Islamic religion and values.

- How do you evaluate the measures taken by the world community in order to prevent the developments in Iraq and Syria?

- I believe that regardless of its motivation and forms of expression, the world community should have a single attitude in struggle against terrorism, carry out a consistent and universal policy, and take specific measures. In this context, the world community should have taken urgent political, diplomatic, military and other measures to overcome terror attacks, different violence and vandalism acts and to prevent inhuman behavior against innocent people in Iraq and Syria. Regretfully, we don't see it. Some state and international organizations periodically hold discussions and assist the representatives of certain ethnic or religious groups as an exception, despite the fact that all of the people living in these territories are subject to massacre and poverty, irrespective of their ethnic, racial, religious and other origins. However, the world community does not have a common strategy regarding the developments in these territories.

- What is the reason for that?

- I believe that there are a lot of reasons why the world community haven't taken urgent measures regarding the developments in Iraq and Syria. At the same time, it should be noted that most of armed confrontations in the world take place in the territories where muslims live, and either regional countries or big states beyond the region are interested in the continuation of these conflicts. Therefore, these conflicts usually last for long. We can see from the developments in Iraq and Syria that the application of illegal violations against civilians has become a common case day by day in the territories Iraq and Syria. Although the victims of criminal actions of the terrorists include representatives of Christian minorities as well, Muslims belonging to different ethnic groups and living in these territories, are massively killed exposed to violation, famine, and poverty. To my opinion, these are among the reasons why the world community doesn't take urgent measures.

- Can Azerbaijan take any specific measures to draw the attention of the world community to the urgency of this issue?

- Azerbaijan suffered from terror and massacre in its native lands by Armenians within the recent two centuries and felt pain of terror crimes. The Azerbaijani Government continuously persevered in struggle against terrorism, refused double standards, joined international antiterrorist coalition, and currently is one of the active members of this antiterrorist coalition.

On the other hand, Azerbaijan is currently chairs CoE Committee of Ministers. I believe that Azerbaijan may hold an urgent meeting regarding the developments in Iraq and Syria during its chairmanship in this Committee, and the sooner this meeting is held, the better.

Finally, I would like to note that I, as a Chairman of Azerbaijani Delegation to Euronest PA, called on the European Parliament, PACE, OSCE PA, and Euronest PA to address the world community for preventing inhuman actions against the innocent people by holding urgent discussions on terror actions in Iraq and Syria, different kinds of violence and vandalism and taking political, diplomatic, military, and other urgent measures.