Arthur Sahakyan, 63, walks inside the damaged Ghazanchetsots (Holy Saviour) Cathedral in the historic city of Shusha, ...
Posted on 11/16/2020 12:23:40 AM PST by xomething
MOSCOW (AP) — The president of Azerbaijan is promising that Christian churches will be protected when the strongly Muslim country takes possession of areas formerly controlled by Armenians.
President Ilham Aliyev’s office said he made the promise in a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is deploying peacekeeping forces in the areas under an agreement that ended six weeks of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Ethnic Armenian forces had controlled Nagorno-Karabakh and sizeable adjacent territories since the 1994 end of a separatist war. Fighting resumed in late September and ended with an agreement that calls for Azerbaijan to regain control of the outlying territories as well as allowing it to hold on to parts of Nagorno-Karabakh that it seized during the fighting.
The first of the territories, Kalbajar, is being turned over on Sunday.
Kalbajar is home to the well-known Dadivank monastery of the Armenian Apostolic Church. A day before the territory´s handover, workers removed many of the monastery´s sacred objects. Other residents in Kalbajar torched their own homes, fearing what will happen when Azerbaijani forces take over.
Azerbaijan is about 95 per cent Muslim and Armenians fear that churches would be damaged or closed when it takes control of the territories.
“President Aliyev said that Christian churches in Azerbaijani territories, which are returned to Azerbaijan in accordance with the trilateral statement, will also be properly protected by the state. Christians of Azerbaijan will have access to these churches,” said the statement from his office.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of combatants and civilians have been killed since fighting flared anew in late September.
Arthur Sahakyan, 63, walks inside the damaged Ghazanchetsots (Holy Saviour) Cathedral in the historic city of Shusha, ...
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
To be fair to the Azeris, I believe them that they will protect the Churches.
The reasons are:
1. Aliyev is dependent on Russia and doesn’t want to antagonize the Russian eagle
2. Aliyev is also pragmatic - this was disputed territory and he has only taken back what was disputed since 1991, even when he could have taken more
3. The Azeris are 97% Muslim but nearly all are Muslim in name only - I’ve been there and it’s as secular as Latvia, meaning far more secular than the USA.
4. Aliyev doesn’t want to get too close to Erdogan and get drawn into Erdogan’s madness. He’s got a win and that’s enough for him. Now he gets to look like the benevolent ruler
Erdoo Lies, it is in his DNA.
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I had hoped the Azeris were better than this. I was wrong.
Gotta hand it to Erdogan -- Israel supports Azerbaijan against common enemy Iran, leaving Armenia (and the Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh) isolated. And he has Putin where he wants him, and the two of them coordinate at confluences of their interests, while not getting involved in direct conflicts with each other (Libya being an example where their interests diverge).
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