PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian President Armen Sarkissian has strongly rejected suggestions that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was not just a land dispute, but also a religious war between Christian-majority Armenia and Muslim-majority Azerbaijan.

“It was never a religious war,” Sarkissian said in an interview with Arab News. “Armenia has wonderful relations with a lot of states where Islam is a major religion, states where Islam is the only religion, or states that have Islam as their state religion”.

“The other side (Azerbaijan and Turkey – Ed.) sometimes like to use that (the “religious war” description – Ed.) in order to accumulate support from Islamic world, but Armenia never tried to get support from Christian states.”

He also said Armenia is not a religious state and already enjoys “excellent relations” with Arab countries as well as Iran, which “didn’t take the path of destroying Armenian heritage or churches —in fact the government financed the restoration of Armenian churches in Iran.”