Pope visits former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan
Pope John Paul arrived today in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan for a short visit - the pontiff’s first trip since his 82nd birthday.
There are only 150 Roman Catholics in the Muslim nation, and the trip was heralded as the frail Pope’s attempt to promote harmony among religions.
President Geidar Aliev invited John Paul, expressing hope that the Vatican could intervene in the lingering stalemate with neighbouring Armenia over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The two-day trip is seen as more political than religious, although a Mass is planned for tomorrow at a sports arena.
The pope is to meet Aliev later today after visiting a monument to those killed in Nagorno-Karabakh and in a nationalist uprising put down by Soviet tanks in 1990.
The Mass tomorrow at a Baku sports arena will followed by meetings with local religious leaders.
The pope leaves that afternoon for Bulgaria, the other country he is visiting on his tour behind the former Iron Curtain.
The trip to Azerbaijan also brings an unusual first for someone as well-travelled as John Paul: He is staying in a hotel, because the church here is so small that it had no suitable facilities of its own to offer him.
John Paul has visited a number of Muslim countries, and has recently intensified efforts for religious harmony and a repudiation of violence in the name of religion.
In the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan last September, also a largely Muslim nation, he said the Catholic Church respects ‘‘authentic Islam,’’ making the distinction between it and the fanaticism that some fear will stigmatise the religion after the September 11 terror attacks.
Azerbaijan, the only other country besides Iran with a majority of followers from the Shiite branch of Islam, practices a secular breed of the religion.
But it has been accused by international rights groups of practising harsh controls on religion -
including arrests, beatings and fines for believers of some faiths.
There have been growing numbers of opposition protests against Aliev’s rule over the past months, and one of their top issues has been the resolution of the conflict in ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh that ended with 20% of Azerbaijan’s territory becoming a de-facto part of Armenia.
A ceasefire ended the fighting in 1994, leaving 30,000 dead and more than one million people without homes in Azerbaijan.
