Posted on 10/22/2020 9:23:41 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Vadim Melnikov once fought for the land of Noah.
Donning his Azerbaijani uniform 17 years ago, the ethnic Russian took his post to defend Nakhchivan, an Azeri enclave bordering Turkey and separated from their countrymen by the nation of Armenia.
Melnikov is part of the 0.26 percent evangelical community. And on behalf of their nation, eight churches and the Azerbaijan Bible Society wrote an open letter to decry the popular conception that this conflict pits Muslims against Christians. (More than 770 Armenian soldiers have been killed so far. Azerbaijan does not disclose military casualties.)
“The war which has been between Azerbaijan and Armenia during the last 30 years is purely political confrontation, it has no religious context,” they wrote.
“In fact, this history and continuous attempts of Armenia to present this war as a religious one, can become a stumbling block for many Azerbaijani people, who hear the gospel nowadays.”
“Being a Russian and a Christian, the president is very good to us,” Melnikov said. “I have seen good times and bad, but today there is more freedom than ever before in our history.”
There are Quranic verses on the wall, a Christmas tree in the corner, and vodka on the table” of the typical Azeri home, said Brian Gilson, head of Oklahoma-based P28 Global Ministries, whose doctoral research is on the evangelical movement in Azerbaijan.
“Not only are most Azeris not religious, but the government’s main concern is to counter violent extremism.”
President Aliyev is authoritarian, Gilson said, but the state does not interfere in the private lives of citizens.
Meanwhile, it can be “draconian” toward Muslim groups, said Chris Jones, executive director for the North American Azerbaijan Network.
“Demonizing Azerbaijan as a jihadi puppet of Turkey is just nonsense,” Jones said, referring to Armenian fears of renewed genocide.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
(And "Christianity Today" in general wants to counter more traditionalist-leaning voices and narratives in the Evangelical world.)
Thank You for posting.
The Azeris deliberately blew up a centuries old cathedral. Make of that what you will.
It is most definitely a religious war and Armenia, like Israel knows what a Holocaust is like and is determined to NOT let it happen again.
This war began during the breakup of the USSR and whether or not the ethnic Armenian province of Nagorno-Karabakh would become part of Azerbaijan or part of Armenia.
This article is about the Azeri province of Nakhchivan, which is between Iran and Armenia.
Religion, politics, and ethnicity are all intertwined here, and inseparable.
It's a war of genocide against the Armenians.
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