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Participants of Baku int'l conference appeal to heads of states, international organizations and religious leaders

21 December 2017 15:17 (UTC +04:00)

On 21 December 2017, International Conference with the participation of the state officials, religious and academic figures, as well as the heads and representatives of international organizations titled "2017- The Year of Islamic Solidarity: Inter-religious and intercultural dialogue" was held in the capital city of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Baku.

The participants of the conference appealed to heads of states, international organizations and religious leaders, APA reported.

The participants of the Conference:

appraised the joint conferences on the interreligious dialogue held in Azerbaijan, Finland, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Uzbekistan and Spain in 2017 within the framework of "The Year of Islamic Solidarity" declared by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, His Excellency Mr. Ilham Aliyev, who has attached great importance to the protection and development of intercultural and interreligious dialogue, as well as national, cultural and religious values and traditions, and highly appreciated the attention and support to these events by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan;

applauded the addresses of the President of the Republic of Turkey, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Holy See, the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia;

emphasized the significance of cultural diversity, intercultural and interreligious dialogue and related international cooperation in the environment of mutual respect and understanding as a guarantor of peace and security. Stated the importance of continuation of Baku Process started in 2008 aimed at preventing global threats, as well as relevant initiatives, and enhancing efforts in this direction;

expressed their deep concerns over the increase in discrimination, xenophobia, terrorism, separatism, extremism as well as national, religious and ethnic intolerance, mass flow of refugees and internally displaced persons on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe, and destruction of monuments and temples, as well as religious, cultural and historical wealth by terror and separatist groups;

noted the indispensable contribution of Islam and all the monotheistic religions reflecting human values to the world civilization, culture and heritage as well as to the establishment of humanism, peace and justice;

underlined the important role of Islamic solidarity in development of intercultural and interreligious dialogue, promotion of common human values in the world and transmission to future generation;

articulated the importance of strengthening efforts by the international community for the sake of putting an end to the armed conflicts impeding sustainable development, tranquility, stability and security;

The participants of the Conference:

call states, the UN and other international and regional organizations as well as religious leaders for the continuation of the promotion of intercultural and interreligious dialogue and mutual understanding and expansion of cooperation in this field;

call for the enhancement of cooperation to prevent propaganda based on harmful ideology and leading to national, religious and ethnic violence;

call for taking effective measures to prevent politically motivated and purposefully incited xenophobia and Islamophobia, act of terrorism abusing the name of Islam as well as crimes against humanity;

call international community to unite, through the UN role of central coordination, the efforts for efficiently combatting threats and provocations to the international stability and security, as well as for preventing terrorism, aggressive separatism and extremism causing creation of conflicts and flow of refugees, IDPs and migrants;

reaffirm their adherence to the Charter of the United Nations, and generally recognized norms and principles, particularly sovereign equality of states, territorial integrity and inviolability of international borders; Call for contribution to the resolution of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in this context;

call, by emphasizing unacceptability of the developments around the holy city of all monotheistic religions – Haram el Sharif Jerusalem and political processes further aggravating already complicated situation, for increasing efforts to find peaceful settlement of this issue based on the mutual respect to each religion and culture, the international norms and principles and the resolutions adopted by the UN, and call the international community to be vigilant in respecting the status quo of the religious communities in Jerusalem in conformity with international law.