Vatican Archbishop hails religious tolerance in Azerbaijan
President Ilham Aliyev met with Secretary for Relations with States of the Holy See Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher in Baku,. who was on his first visit to Azerbaijan on February 10.
Gallagher, who led a delegation to Baku, thanked the President for the high hospitality shown to them.
The Archbishop, noting his well awareness of Azerbaijan, said it was interesting to see the development in Azerbaijan.
He hailed the promotion of the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Church's Apostolic Prefecture in Azerbaijan Vladimir Fekete to the bishop’s rank under the order of Pope Francis, and described this as manifestation of the importance the Pope attaches to the Catholic community in Azerbaijan and relations with the country.
President Aliyev described Pope Francis’ visit to Azerbaijan two years ago as an historic event, saying he bears warm memories about the trip.
The head of state also recalled his official visit to the Vatican, and hailed the importance of the meetings he held with Pope Francis and Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.
He also stressed that this kind of high-level reciprocal visits is an indicative of close relations between Azerbaijan and the Vatican.
President Aliyev expressed his hope that the visit of Gallagher to Azerbaijan will be fruitful, saying he is confident that the trip will contribute to the strengthening of current partnership between the two states.
Azerbaijan’s great contribution to inter-religious and intercultural dialogue as an exemplary multicultural and tolerant country was underlined.
In the course of the visit, Gallagher also held meetings with a number of Azerbaijan’s high-ranking officials, including Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
During the meeting with country’s FM, the sides expressed their satisfaction with the development of relations between Azerbaijan and the Holy See.
Mammadyarov noted that Azerbaijan has historically been a place where the representatives of different cultures and religions co-exist peacefully.
The minister reiterated that on the basis of national traditions of tolerance Azerbaijan promotes the ideas of peaceful co-existence, mutual respect and multiculturalism in the world.
In this regard, the importance of International Humanitarian Forum and Intercultural Dialogue Forum was underlined.
Expressing his gratitude for the support and care to the Catholic community in Azerbaijan, the Archbishop highly appreciated the tolerance and respect to other religious communities in Azerbaijan.
Mammadyarov said that the year of 2017 had been declared “Islamic Solidarity year” in Azerbaijan. Adding that international conference on “2017 - Islamic Solidarity Year: Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue” was jointly organized by the Caucasian Muslims Office and the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations and the representative of the Holy See took part at the above-mentioned conference.
Noting the close cooperation between the Pontifical Council for Culture of the Holy See and Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the sides emphasized the invaluable role of Azerbaijan’s First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva in the further development of cooperation.
The restoration of several historical monuments especially the catacombs in Vatican with the direct support of Heydar Aliyev Foundation was appraised.
Mammadyarov thanked the Holy See for the support in finding several precious documents in the Holy See’s archives on middle ages history of Azerbaijan and underlined the importance of continuation of cooperation in this sphere.
At the meeting, Mammadyarov briefed his counterpart about the negotiation process on the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, just and fair position of Azerbaijan, Armenia’s plundering and destruction policy of the cultural heritage of Azerbaijani people in the occupied territories.
Touching upon the issue of illegal settlement of ethnic Armenian refugees from Syria in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Mammadyarov noted that Armenia's deliberate efforts to pursue the settlement policy and change the demographic structure of occupied territories seriously violate the international humanitarian law.
The minister added that as a result of Armenia's aggression more than one million Azerbaijanis were forcefully subjected to ethnic cleansing by Armenia.
The sides expressed mutual concern about the raise of racism, xenophobia, ethnic and religious hatred in the world.
At the meeting, the parties also exchanged their views on the issues of developing the relations between Azerbaijan and the Holy See and mutual exchange of high level visits.
The official visits of Azerbaijan’s national leader Heydar Aliyev on September 24-27, 1997 and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on March 6, 2017 to Vatican, as well as the historical visits of Pope John Paul II on May 22, 2002 and Pope Francis on October 2, 2016 to Baku ushered in a new page in Azerbaijan-Holy See relations.