Azernews.Az

By Trend

The heads of the religious confessions of Azerbaijan appealed to the world community and international organizations, Trend reports on July 24.

The appeal states the following:

"We, the leaders of religious confessions in Azerbaijan, condemn military provocation committed by the Armenian armed forces on July 12 in Azerbaijan’s Tovuz district direction of the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, constant shelling of civilians, settlements, temples, and call on the world community, religious leaders and international organizations not to remain indifferent to this event, demonstrating the appropriate position.”

“We support international efforts on settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and call on international organizations, including the UN, the OSCE Minsk Group, to join efforts to express an adequate response to crimes against civilians."

In the document, the religious leaders expressed concern that if Armenia continues military provocations, the conflict may escalate, turning into a big war.

“Sometimes the occupied side and the occupier are placed on the same level, which is unacceptable and cannot contribute to the settlement of the conflict. All countries without exception must observe the norms of international law. The use of weapons against civilians is a continuation of the military aggression of Armenia, ethnic cleansing and terrorist acts against the Azerbaijani people," the document said.

The appeal also stressed that the shelling of civilians, despite the announcement of a ceasefire, murder, creating threat for the people’s life, destruction of religious monuments once again prove that it is high time to radically change attitude towards the aggressor, to move from regular statements to the adoption of decisive measures.

"The spread of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to various regions of the world, the confrontation between Azerbaijanis and Armenians living abroad on ethnic grounds foreshadow a great danger. The facts testify to the global scale of the regional conflict which arose as a result of separatism and terror, for a long time remained frozen and hasn’t been fairly solved.”

“Attacks by Armenians on representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora and diplomatic missions abroad are the consequences of the unresolved conflict. The world community should not remain indifferent to this. Unfortunately, the provocations of the Armenian side once again lead to a violation of the negotiation process towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict.”

“All political and legal responsibility for this provocation lies with the Armenian side. We call on the international community to express its decisive position for the blatant facts of the killing of civilians during military provocations by the armed forces of Armenia in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, as well as the recent one - on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, to sharply condemn the aggression and provocations, to unite efforts for preventing such cases and establishing a just peace".

The appeal was signed by the Chairman of the Caucasian Muslims Office, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade and the leaders of religious confessions in Azerbaijan - the Head of the Baku and Azerbaijan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Alexander Ishchein, the Head of the Mountain Jews Community in Azerbaijan Melikh Yevdayev, the Chairman of the Albanian-Udi Christian community Robert Mobili.

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