Brussels, 26 September 2017 – Member of the European Parliament Željana Zovko and EPP shadow rapporteur on Azerbaijani issues in the European Parliament, has met today a high-level delegation of religious leaders from Azerbaijan. The meeting was organized at the initiative of the MEP Zovko, who is also an active member of the EPP Group for Inter-Religious and Inter-Cultural Dialogue, after her visit to South Caucasus in May this year as a member of the Delegation of the EP Committee for Foreign Affairs.
Members of the high-level delegation of religious leaders from Azerbaijan were: Fuad Nurullayev, Deputy Chairman of the Caucasus Muslim Board (Shia), Jeyhun Rustamov, imam of the Ilahijat mosque (Sunni), Aleksandr Sharovsky, President of the Jewish Community, Elnur Afandiyev, Secretary to the Russian Orthodox Church in Baku, Rasim Khalilov, Chairman and pastor of the “Word of Life” (Orthodox Community), Sayavush Heydarov, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations. and Nijat Mammadli, Head of International Relations Department in the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations.
The attendants of the meeting had an opportunity to exchange views and information about social, political and religious issues in Azerbaijan and in the Caucasus region and the relations with the European Union.
MEP Zovko said in her address:
“When I was in South Caucasus in May, I realized that the dialogue between the communities in those countries needed to be deepened. As I have experience in many successful projects of reconciliation through dialogue and inter-religious dialogue projects and also in work in UNESCO, I came to an idea to invite to a meeting the religious leaders from Azerbaijan who have a decisive role in promoting dialogue and calming down tensions between the societies and the countries.“