Religion

Religion

Azerbaijani, Russia and Armenian religious leaders issue Declaration on results of trilateral meeting in Baku

26 April 2010 13:29 (UTC +04:00)

To show respect to each other, to take immediate measures for achieving fair peace between the peoples and nations, the religious leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia met in Baku through the mediation of the leader of Russian Orthodox Church Cyril, said the religious leaders in their declaration. â€œConsidering this meeting as an extension of the peaceful dialogue launched between the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Caucasian Muslims Clerical Office in 1988 through the mediation of the Russian Orthodox Church and keeping loyalty to our previous statements, we are looking forward to promote the development of the principles of co-existence of our peoples and elaboration of mutual decisions made through the negotiations and satisfied all sides. We have to note that the tradition of the meetings held in such format promoted the ending of armed phase of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict arisen from the Karabakh problem. These meetings prevented the conflict to turn into the religious conflictâ€.

The declaration said potential of the religion, which called for peace, martyrdom and patience, should be a power of reconciliation. â€œWe believe that our joint efforts will enable us to prevent the international confrontation. It is vitally important not to allow the disputes to return back to the military way. We will strengthen our peaceful efforts to support the peopleâ€™s hopes for elimination of enmity because if the war continues it will be endlessâ€.

â€œWe support the international efforts for the resolution of the conflict. The communication should be extended to achieve peace and peaceful coexistence with the view of strengthening mutual confidence. Permanent peace is possible only if there is goodwill and sincere intention. By supporting the efforts of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents we want to assist their initiatives. In order to contribute to the resolution of the conflict, we think it is important to continue the dialogue among the religious leaders. The resolution of the conflict will allow the persons displaced during the war to return to their native lands. We welcome the release of the captives by the sides, call on the political and religious figures to activate their efforts towards benevolent and humanitarian process. We condemn the acts of barbarism and consider it important to protect religious monuments, sacred temples of our nations.â€

The document says that it is not easy to achieve peace and understanding.
â€œIt requires much work and strong will. But we have great hopes that we will have a success. Let the God endow the Caucasus with permanent and fair peace, our nations with happiness,â€ says the declaration.