By R.Ravichandran
KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Azerbaijan and Malaysia share many similarities with regards to ethnic diversity, religious tolerance and multiculturalism in a world that is increasingly being polarised by ethnic and religious divisions, said its ambassador to Malaysia Prof Dr Qaley Allahverdiyev.
Allahverdiyev said the two Muslim countries and its people also share the values of mutual respect and understanding, as well as valuing racial harmony, which is important for a country’s political and economic stability.
He said promoting the culture of peace is necessary to prevent discords in today’s volatile global environment because religious and ethnic intolerance were potent ingredients for conflict and instability.
The ambassador said Azerbaijan, located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia and populated by 10 million people, is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country.
He added that the nation, where 96 per cent of its citizens are Muslims, has had a long history of peaceful inter-ethnic and inter-religious coexistence, with many churches and synagogues in the country.
“Azerbaijan is a very tolerant country and a friendly country, no religious or ethnic issues,” he said in an interview with Bernama International News Service, here recently.
After asserting its independence from Russia in 1918 and prior to its incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1920, Azerbaijan gained the distinction of being the first democratic state in the Muslim world.
In October 1991, Azerbaijan declared its independence from the then Soviet Union.
Allahverdiyev said that Azerbaijan and its peace-loving people had gone through some of the worst genocides in modern history.
He said one such genocide was the massacre perpetrated by nationalist Armenians in March-April 1918 due to their ethnic and religious affiliation, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of civilians in Baku and other areas.
The ambassador pointed out that a political assessment of these bloody events was only made 80 years later with the signing of the Decree on the Genocide of Azerbaijanis by President Heydar Aliyev on March 26, 1998.
From that day onwards, March 31 had been declared as the day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in a statement, said the commemoration of the day on every March 31 is aimed at raising the awareness of the world community to the facts of the massacre and ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis, past and present.
Allahverdiyev said the Resolution No.96(1) of the United Nations General Assembly dated December 11, 1946, which affirmed that genocide, being a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, was one of the most serious crimes against humanity.
He also expressed hope that genocides, which his country had gone through, would never happen again in other countries.
Besides that, he mentioned that several countries have already recognised the Khojaly tragedy – the killing of 613 ethnic Azerbaijani civilians in February 1992 in the town of Khojaly in the Nagorno-Karabakh region – as a genocide.
The ambassador said that 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh, is under Armenia’s occupation – an act that has never been recognised by the international community or any other country, including Malaysia.
Allahverdiyev pointed out that Baku and Kuala Lumpur also shared comparable views on international issues.
The ambassador said Azerbaijan will be hosting the 18th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in October 2019 and chair the organisation in 2019-2022, and he described it as an opportunity for the country to promote and advance the cause of peace and international security.
Allahverdiyev also stated that on April 6, 2019, the 10 millionth citizen of Azerbaijan had been born in Baku. He described the positive demographic trend as one of the achievements of the country’s policy aimed at sustainable socio-economic development of the Republic of Azerbaijan and added that President Ilham Aliyev and first lady Mehriban Aliyeva had congratulated the people of Azerbaijan on this occasion.
Edited by Sharifah Arfah Syed Mestaddin
–NNN-BERNAMA
