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President Aliyev says cooperation with Islamic states priority for Azerbaijan - UPDATE

14 April 2016 17:54 (UTC+04:00)
President Aliyev says cooperation with Islamic states priority for Azerbaijan - UPDATE

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijan has voiced its keen aspiration to further develop relations with the Muslim states.

President Ilham Aliyev, who is attending the 13th Islamic Summit Conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, said at the first session of the Summit that Azerbaijan gives priority to cooperation with the Islamic countries.

"In recent years, Baku has hosted more than 10 meetings of the OIC member states' foreign affairs, culture, tourism, education, labor and other ministers," he said. "I highly appreciate the activity of OIC towards mutual support and solidarity. Today, Islamophobia is one of the serious threats to the world. We strongly condemn this trend. In fact, Islam is a religion of peace, compassion, tolerance and justice. Equating Islam with terrorism is a wrong and biased approach. The Muslim states are the most affected from terrorism."

Azerbaijan regularly contributes to the dialogue of cultures and religions. Capital Baku will host the 7th Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations on April 25-27. Azerbaijan also attaches great importance to solidarity among Islamic countries. The 4th Islamic Solidarity Games will also be held in Baku in 2017.

President Aliyev also drew attention to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the OIC's efforts in resolving it.

The head of state said the OIC foreign ministers have decided to establish a contact group engaged in the settlement of the conflict, and thanked the organization for such a decision.

"For more than 20 years, Armenia has been pursuing aggressive policy against Azerbaijan. As a result of this policy, 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory - Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions were occupied by Armenia, ethnic cleansing was carried out in those areas and more than one million of our cognates have become refugees and internally displaced people. Armenia has committed Khojaly genocide. International community and organizations recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and support fair settlement of the conflict in accordance with international law. The UN Security Council has issued four resolutions on the conflict. These resolutions demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian Armed Forces from Azerbaijani lands. At the same time, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OSCE, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and other organizations have adopted similar resolutions," he stressed.

President Aliyev thanked the OIC for fair resolutions of the organization on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which supports settlement of the conflict within the framework of Azerbaijan's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"Occupant Armenia ignores these decisions and from time to time resorts to armed provocations to break the negotiation process. One of them was carried out in early April. Azerbaijani soldiers and civilians were killed in an armed attack. Azerbaijani army prevented the Armenian provocation," he said.

The OIC, which announced on April 12 about its plan to establish a contact group for the settlement of the long-lasting Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, always kept the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in focus.

Its member states expressed concern over the occupation of Azerbaijan territories by Armenia as well as the looting and destruction of archeological, cultural and religious monuments in those areas, including those Islamic monuments included in the resolution that the OIC summit adopted in Dakar, Senegal in 2008.

Moreover, the Organization has repeatedly slammed Armenia for the destruction of Islamic artifacts in the invaded lands.

The 13th Summit of the OIC is being held in Istanbul on April 14-15 and there will be very broad participation, as it is being attended by the representatives of all 56 member countries. The theme of this year’s summit is “Unity and Solidarity for Justice and Peace.”

This Summit is being held at a time when there is a need for unity and solidarity of the Islamic world to search for ways of preventing risks and threats, resolving the existing problems endangering peace and justice, which is worthy of the Islamic world.

Settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was high on the agenda of the OIC Summit. Iyad Ameen Madani, who serves as the secretary general of the OIC, stated that the violation of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity is unacceptable.

While speaking at the 13th OIC Islamic Summit Conference, he noted that the Organization stands for the speedy settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Turkey, which has always supported Azerbaijan's sovereignty and territorial integrity, has also urged the OIC to support Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The latest developments in the region require the OIC countries to show a single position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in turn, said the interference of other countries in the Muslim states' affairs is unacceptable and urged the Muslim countries to resolve their problems themselves,

He also proposed the member states of the OIC to establish the Arbitration Center for resolving their internal disputes.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter @Aynur_Karimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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