Baku. Farid Akbarov – APA. Chairman of the Caucasian Muslims Office, Sheikh-ul-Islam Haji Allahshukur Pashazade met with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in Moscow Nov. 22.
During the meeting Patriarch Kirill stated that relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Caucasian Muslims Office stand at a high level, APA’s Moscow correspondent reported.
“The spiritual and cultural ties between our nations are constantly developing. Our peoples have experienced many developments within the 30 years of our friendship,” he said.
“We have gone through a very difficult period, and the country where we lived together collapsed. This process was not peaceful at all. We know that the Nagorno-Karabakh wound is still bleeding. I would like to particularly emphasize the steps you are taking towards a peaceful settlement. This is a very noble and hard mission. When people are trying to reconcile the parties, they always run the risk of being misunderstood. Those implementing this mission are well aware that peace is above all,” the head of the Russian Orthodox Church continued.
Patriarch also stressed the importance of relations between Russia and Azerbaijan. "Russia and Azerbaijan are closely linked to each other. There is a largest Russian diaspora in Azerbaijan, Russian people is an important factor in the life of Azerbaijan. The same thing can be said about the Azerbaijanis living in Russia. Among them there are those who are engaged in politics, business. In Russia people are not divided according to their ethnicity. All Russian citizens have the same rights. For them there are no restrictions.
Patriarch Kirill spoke about the activity of Baku Eparchy of the Orthodox Church. “I welcome your support to Baku Eparchy of the Orthodox Church. The opening of Orthodox Religious and Cultural Center of Baku and Azerbaijan Eparchy is an example of our friendly relations,” he added.
Speaking of the fight against international terrorism, he noted that Russia and Azerbaijan takes a common position on this issue.
“We do know that terrorists kill not only Christians, but also fellow Muslims. That’s terrible. People of the same religion and national identity killing one another cannot be explained politically in any way. It calls for coordinated efforts from the international community as well as religious communities,” he said.
Allahshukur Pashazade, in turn, congratulated Patriarch Kirill on his 70th jubilee, expressing his pleasure to join the events held in Moscow.
“The issues you touched upon in your speech are of importance to everyone, regardless of their religion. Azerbaijan’s biggest problem today is the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We’re pleased to be helping the efforts to solve this conflict peacefully and to prevent it from developing into a religious conflict. The Azerbaijani people and president highly appreciate your role in this regard. As a brother of yours, I’m asking you to keep on helping the efforts to solve this conflict peacefully,” said Pashazade.
Later on, Azerbaijani ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu read out President Ilham Aliyev’s congratulatory letter to Patriarch Kirill.
In the end, Pashazade presented an Azerbaijani carpet to Patriarch Kirill.
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