RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH HOPES ORTHODOX CHURCH IN NAGORNY KARABAKH WILL PROMOTE PEACE IN REGION

Interfax
Jan 14 2010
Russia

Moscow, January 14, Interfax – The Moscow Patriarchate said it does
not consider itself authorized to evaluate the status of Nagorny
Karabakh and favor peaceful settlement of conflicts.

"The Russian Orthodox Church has always been sad about the Karabakh
conflict and made efforts to find and propose to politicians ways
of settling it in a peaceful way together with Azerbaijani Muslims
and Armenian Christians," Hieromonk Philipp (Ryabykh), deputy head
of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations,
told Interfax-Religion on Thursday.

Father Philipp said the Nagorny Karabakh community, which wants
to come under the spiritual care of the Russian Orthodox Church,
currently has some 600 members. In summer 2009, a Moscow Patriarchate
parish was registered in Stepanakert, and a land site was allotted
for church construction.

The development of the Nagorny Karabakh parish "has always been
regarded by the Russian Orthodox Church as a means of bringing another
peace factor on the long-suffering land of Nagorny Karabakh, not as
a means of taking anyone’s side," Father Philipp said.

"The Russian Church believes that its presence in Armenia, Azerbaijan,
and Nagorny Karabakh will promote prompt peaceful settlement in this
region," he said.

"This is our view of the tasks of the Russian church in Nagorny
Karabakh," the priest said.