“Religion has taken a place in the narratives that depict two warring sides locked into perpetual battle, and the international media nearly always frames the conflict as one between “Christian Armenia” and “Muslim Azerbaijan”, implanting that image in the minds of readers,” writes Onnik James Krikorian in this op-ed for commonspace.eu. “Thus, at some point, the question of religious diplomacy to dispel such inaccuracies should also be factored into future Track II diplomacy efforts,” he adds.
On 15 October 2020, as war waged between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a baptist cleric convened a multi-confessional joint service for peace in Tbilisi. Despite the tensions and hostilities, Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili invited Armenian and Azerbaijani clergy to come together.
The service was held at the “Peace Cathedral” in the Georgian capital, a repurposed space to, as Songulashvili says, respond to “ugliness with beauty.” It seeks to encourage interfaith dialogue between the three Abrahamic faiths – Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis make up the two largest ethnic minorities in the country – numbering around 168,000 and 233,000 according to the 2014 Georgian census. In total, that is around 10.8% of the population, leaving some concerned that the 2020 Karabakh war could influence inter-ethnic relations.
“It took some effort to convince the Azerbaijani and Armenian clergy that we should come together and pray immediately,” Songulashvili told media at the time, “but as we came together, talked to each other and prayed together for peace, the tensions evaporated.”
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The full article can be read here.
