HEAD OF ARMENIAN CHURCH PAYS LANDMARK VISIT TO TRADITIONAL ENEMY AZERBAIJAN
BYLINE: Lilit Gevorgyan
World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
April 28 2010
The leader of Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II, made
an unprecedented trip to neighbouring Azerbaijan which remains in a
low-intensity war with Armenia. During his trip to the Azerbaijani
capital Baku, Garegin II met with Azeri president Ilham Aliyev and
the country’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur
Pashazade. The two-day visit, 26- 27 April, was to take part in a
world religious summit that convened in Baku. Garegin II discussed
with Azerbaijan’s political and religious leaders the future of
the conflict over the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region,
which has been essentially independent for the past 20 years. He
urged all parties to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict,
thus expressing his opposition to Aliyev’s repeated calls to restart
the war with Armenia to claw back the breakaway region. Garegin II
held a mass in the abandoned 19th-century Armenian St. Gregory the
Illuminator’s Church in Baku, which was seriously damaged after an
arson attack a few years ago.
Significance:The visit by the Armenian Church leader is the first
high-profile Armenian visit to Azerbaijan since the outbreak of war
over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1988, which claimed some 30,000 lives. The
visit is an exception to the background of worsening hostile
Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. While the protracted political talks
mediated by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) are making unsatisfactory progress, Garegin II’s visit may
be the beginning of "track two" diplomacy. The Armenian Church
leader has already launched the restoration of the Azeri mosque
in Nagorno-Karabakh. The initiative is to facilitate lower-level
dialogue between Armenians and Azeris and try to quell high-level
animosity and mistrust between the two neighbours. As the first
official Christian church in the world, the Armenian Apostolic Church
has long been involved in the global ecumenical movement promoting
peace in hot spots such as the Middle East. Bringing this drive to
Armenian-Azeri relations is welcome news and certainly a boost to the
track two diplomacy advocated by some Armenian and Azeri journalistic
and youth groups.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
