Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

The leaders of Azerbaijan's religious confessions have called for a political-legal assessment of Armenian atrocities and the cancellation of the European Parliament's biased resolution.

The spiritual leaders made the remarks in a joint statement in response to the resolution adopted recently by the European Parliament accusing Azerbaijan of destroying Armenian cultural heritage.

The statement described the allegations contained in the resolution text as false, defamatory and completely unacceptable.

“Not only representatives of the European Parliament, but the whole world should know that, unlike Armenia, in Azerbaijan representatives of various nationalities and religions, including thousands of citizens of Armenian origin, live in peace and harmony,” the statement said.

The authors of the statement highlighted that the Armenian Church in Baku's center is preserved in good shape and is protected by the state as a historical and religious landmark.

“At the same time, during almost 30 year-occupation of Azerbaijan's territories by Armenia, mosques and other temples, cemeteries, historical monuments, museums, libraries were looted and destroyed, the temples of ancient Caucasian Albania and Orthodox churches were Armenized, animals were kept in mosques," the statement added.

The religious confession leaders also recalled that Armenia completely destroyed the historical Azerbaijani religious monuments on its territory, the Iravani Shah Abbas, Sardar, Haji Novruz Ali mosques and other examples of cultural-spiritual heritage. Furthermore, Armenia entirely demolished unique architectural monuments and purposefully altered the architectural aspects of Yerevan's only surviving Blue Mosque.

“Along with the destruction of the cultural-spiritual heritage of Azerbaijanis, Armenia Gregorianized the Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist in Azerbaijan's Shusha, the ancient Albanian churches, and completely destroyed the Orthodox Church in Khojavand,” the statement stressed.

Moreover, the statement authors stressed that after the restoration of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, the Armenian side is trying to convince the whole world that it has allegedly been subjected to aggression by Azerbaijan.

“In fact, Armenia initiated the former Karabakh conflict to occupy the neighboring country’s territory and spreading the lie that this conflict is allegedly between Muslims and Christians, presents Armenian people as the ‘oppressed people’,” the statement pointed out.

They also pointed out that Armenian propaganda is actively using various means to cover up its territorial claims to foreign lands, including the religious factor.

“Therefore, we, appealing to Pope Francis, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, other religious leaders and international institutions, invited delegations of religious representatives to visit Azerbaijan in order to see the terrible consequences of Armenian vandalism in the previously occupied territories,” the statement underlined.

The statement highlights that as a result of the Armenian occupation, thousands of historical and cultural monuments, libraries, cultural centers, residential buildings, schools, museums, art galleries and theaters, shrines and cemeteries were destroyed and looted.

“Armenia must be held accountable for the mentioned crimes representing aggression against the culture of all mankind and must be condemned by the European Parliament,” the statement underlined.

Furthermore, the heads of religious confessions recalled that in 1992, Armenian armed forces committed genocide in Azerbaijan’s Khojaly, killing 613 peaceful Azerbaijanis, including 63 children, 106 women, 70 old people, and eight families were completely annihilated, regretting that European MPs still haven’t made the legal assessment of this crime.

The statement recalled that the "Armenian terrorism" word was officially used for the first time in the monthly bulletin of the US State Department in 1982.

“The Armenian terrorist organizations – ‘Armenakan’, ‘Hunchak’, ‘Dashnaktsutyun’, ‘ASOA’, ‘ASALA’ and others are based in various regions of the world, including a number of European countries, and don’t abandon their policy of terror against Azerbaijan and Turkey,” the statement said.

They underlined that historical and religious monuments in Azerbaijan, regardless of their belonging, are protected by the Azerbaijani state.

“Azerbaijan is committed to the traditions of multiculturalism, regards this policy as a priority and has contributed to the restoration of historical and religious monuments not only in Azerbaijan but also in other regions of the world,” the statement added.

“Against this background, the European Parliament adopted a biased anti-Azerbaijani resolution accusing it of "destroying the Armenian cultural heritage. The heads of the religious confessions of Azerbaijan called to give a political-legal assessment of the crimes of Armenia and cancel the biased resolution,” the statement said.

The joint statement was signed by Chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Office Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, Secretary of the Baku and Azerbaijan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Archimandrite Alexy, Head of the Community of Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan Milikh Evdayev, Chairman of the Albanian-Udi Christian Religious Community in Azerbaijan Robert Mobili, and Head of the Community of European Jews Baku Alexander Sharovsky.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

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