ArmInfo.The Russian Orthodox Church considers it its duty to influence, among other things, politicians, pushing them to resolve the Karabakh conflict peacefully. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia announced this at a meeting with chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Office Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade.
His Holiness also mentioned the trilateral dialogue with the participation of his interlocutor and the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, which has been going on for 30 years with the mediation of the Russian Orthodox Church and is intended to promote a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. "Although, today there are no strong advances, it is important that there is no war," stated His Holiness.
At the same time, he recalled that in the format of meetings of spiritual leaders, an agreement was reached on the return of prisoners, on the preservation of religious monuments. "All this cannot but have a beneficial effect on the very topic related to the discussion of the Karabakh problem. If everything depended only on religious figures, we would have solved this problem long ago. Therefore, we consider it our duty to have a beneficial effect, including on politicians, encouraging them to solve this problem peacefully. We very much hope that the time will come when this problem will be solved, "the Patriarch concluded.
In turn, the spiritual leader of Azerbaijan stressed: "Azerbaijan highly appreciates your role and efforts aimed at resolving the Karabakh problem and is well aware of the positive steps that have been made in this direction. The Azerbaijani people are especially grateful to you, because it was you who contributed to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict not escalating to the interfaith level. "