The Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II met Friday with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and put in front of him a few questions, reports georgianpress.ru.
In particular, this includes the issue of the David Gareji monastery complex in Azerbaijan and the activities of the Georgian bishop.
His Holiness welcomed the President and members of the Azerbaijani delegation and thanked them for their visit to Georgia, particularly in the Patriarchate.
According to the Patriarch, Georgia and Azerbaijan have long-standing ties of brotherhood, but personally he had a close relationship with the first President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev.
"We are doing everything to maintain peace in the Caucasus. You have a great political experience. I hope that our people will live in peace. I note that there are very good relations between the two religions. Our relationship with Sheikh Shukur Pasha Zade is really friendly. More than once he has been to Georgia, and I have repeatedly been to Azerbaijan," said the Patriarch.
He also noted that Muslims living in Georgia feel no worse than in Azerbaijan. Georgia has more than 300 mosques. Therefore, probably the situation of Christians in Azerbaijan should be equated with the situation of the local Muslims.
"But of course there are questions that need to be addressed. For example, Russia has its own bishop (in Azerbaijan) and it is desirable that Georgia had its own bishop. Of great importance is the monastery complex in Sagarejo. Three of the monasteries of the monastery complex David Gareji are in the territory of Azerbaijan. This can be solved. We do our best to achieve peace in the Caucasus, but this is not always the case. We are concerned about the violation of the territorial integrity of Georgia and Azerbaijan, and we hope that the territorial integrity of Georgia and Azerbaijan will be restored," said the Patriarch.
His Holiness also thanked the Azerbaijani President for the fact that thanks to the company SOCAR all religious representations receive natural gas for free and expressed hope that the relations will develop in the future. -0--
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