PATRIARCH KIRILL INVITES ARMENIAN CATHOLICOS TO BAKU SUMMIT

Interfax
March 18 2010
Russia

Yerevan, March 18, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All
Russia has invited Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians
Karekin II to visit Azerbaijan.

"I have invited His Holiness [Karekin II] to attend the Baku conference
organized by the CIS Inter-Religious Council on behalf of the leader
of Azeri Muslims Allahshukyur Pasha-zade and myself," Patriarch Kirill
said at the Yerevan State University on Thursday.

The summit will allow religious leaders "to express their position
on important issues," he said. The Armenian Apostolic Church and
the Russian Orthodox Church are actively involved in the Karabakh
settlement process, and Karekin II and the Azeri Islamic leader have
met many times with the mediation of the Moscow Patriarchate, he noted.

"Our openness can change a lot," he said. "Churches do not invite
people to political debate, but they can create an atmosphere, in
which people will stop looking at each other through gunsights."