August 26, Chairman of the State Committee on Religious Associations (SCRA) Mubariz Gurbanli met a delegation led by the Chairman of the State Agency for Religious Issues of Georgia Zaza Vashakmadze.

Welcoming the delegation visiting Azerbaijan at the invitation of the State Committee on Religious Associations, Mubariz Gurbanli has noted that the peoples of Azerbaijan and Georgia link historical friendly relations and those relations between the two countries have been built at the highest level.

National leader of our people Heydar Aliyev’s official visit to Georgia in 1996 opened a new page in the promotion of relations between our countries and the President Ilham Aliyev successfully continues good-neighbourly relations and cooperation, the Chairman emphasized. Mr. Gurbanli underlined that Georgia, like many countries, supported the just position of our country in the 44-day war, which ended with the liberation of the historical lands of Azerbaijan under Armenian occupation.

Informing the guests about the relations between the state and religion, tolerance and multicultural environment in Azerbaijan, the Chairman said that President Ilham Aliyev always pays constant attention and takes care to the religious sphere, there is no any distinction with regard to various religious communities and the country preserves its rich tolerance and multicultural values owing to those relations. As a successful continuation of the policy laid down by our national leader, a lot has been done in Azerbaijan in recent years aimed at preserving our national and spiritual values, traditions of coexistence, promoting tolerance towards other religions, the Chairman has expressed. President Ilham Aliyev has signed a number of orders and decrees on the repair and restoration of historical and architectural sites, places of worship and belief of various religions and financial assistance to religious associations. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation, headed by First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva works to restore and preserve mosques and temples vandalized by Armenia, as well as ancient Albanian Christian heritage that falsified and appropriated in our liberated territories. Heydar Aliyev Foundation's projects aimed at preserving historical, cultural and religious heritage are not limited to the borders of Azerbaijan, drawing attention to the Foundation's work in Georgia.

The Chairman has said that there are 2253 mosques, 16 churches and 7 synagogues countrywide, 37 non-Islamic religious communities, including 2 Georgian Orthodox Christian communities have been registered. He said that Georgian Orthodox religious communities are among the communities funded by the state in order to improve the activities of religious communities and promote religious education.

The chairman of the SCRA stressed that announcement of 2016 the “Year of Multiculturalism”, 2017 the “Year of Islamic Solidarity”, and “Baku Process” by President Ilham Aliyev aimed at promoting intercultural and interreligious dialogue has opened wide-range of opportunities for the development of inter-religious dialogue along with declaring Azerbaijan’s inter-religious harmony, tolerance and multicultural environment to the world.

Expressing gratitude for the invitation and a cordial meeting, Chairman of the State Agency for Religious Issues of Georgia Zaza Vashakmadze congratulated the people of Azerbaijan on the great victory that led to the liberation of the occupied territories. Speaking about the religious environment and muslim communities in Georgia, the Chairman of the Agency said that the Georgian government always pays special attention and takes care to the Muslim community of the country. Vashakmadze noted that there are about 300 mosques in Georgia, 10 percent of the population are Muslims, the population related to Islam celebrates their religious holidays at a high level and the state provides financial assistance to Muslim communities. Expressing satisfaction with the attention paid to the Georgian community in our country, the guest stressed the need to strengthen existing ties in the religious sphere in order to benefit from the existing experience of the State Committee on Religious Associations of Azerbaijan. Drafting a law on freedom of religious belief in Georgia is underway, Georgia is interested in studying Azerbaijan's experience in this regard, Vashakmadze underlined.

At the end of the meeting discussions were conducted related to the establishment of relations between the Azerbaijan Institute of Theology under SCRA and relevant higher education institutions of Georgia, signing of  a memorandum between the State Committee and the Georgian State Agency for Religious Issues, exchange of views and experience in combating religious radicalism, and further expansion of relations with Moral Values Promotion Fund.    

Ambassador of Georgia to Azerbaijan Zurab Pataradze also participated in the meeting. At the end of the meeting, the guests were presented books published in English by the SCRA on the environment of religious tolerance in our country and the Armenian vandalism against our material and cultural heritage.

In the frame of the visit that will last until August 28, the Georgian delegation will meet with relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as leaders of religious denominations in our country and visit a number of places of worship.