Babayan: Turkey tries to turn Artsakh conflict into religious war

Artsakh President's Advisor Davit Babayan said: "The Turkish authorities and particularly Erdogan have initiated a new round of confrontation in Karabakh."

Artsakh President's Advisor David Babayan said that the Turkish authorities are very actively trying to give the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict a religious character.  

"We see that the Turkish authorities and particularly Erdogan have initiated a new round of confrontation in Karabakh. This time they are trying to involve even more sides in the conflict. There are a number of very dangerous trends. The tragic events in France are directly related to the aggression against Artsakh - thus, terrorist groups led by Erdogan are trying to put pressure on France", Babayan added.

"The French leadership has reacted quite violently to the offensive statements of the Turkish President against President Macron. France, following Russia, made it clear firmly and perfectly that it does not see a military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. And that it is Turkey's aggression and Turkey is throwing fighters in, and so on. What has Erdogan done? He actually took advantage of the freedom of speech in France, although that is a quite stretchable concept. The policy pursued by the ill-reputed Charlie Hebdo magazine is outrageous and has nothing to do with democracy. We should check if this printed product is financed by Turkey. The magazine prints nasty caricatures and offends all the time the feelings of both Christians and Muslims, which is unacceptable. In fact, they are playing along with Erdogan. Macron's thesis that Islam in France  must be moderate and extremist organizations connected to Turkey have to be controlled by the state is brought down to zero by the magazine," insisted Babayan.

Babayan continued: "Erdogan blocked Macron's initiative after a cartoon of Erdogan himself had been published there. This publication gave him a chance to start a dirty and dangerous policy, give the process a religious flavor, and play with the feelings of Muslims. The manipulations of Ankara have nothing to do with real Islam. Erdogan himself is the main violator of the precepts of Islam and the Koran. In Islam, perjury refers to the great sins (kaba'ir), of which the Prophet Mohammed reminded repeatedly.

Erdogan manipulates the Islamic faith to achieve his narrow nationalist and terrorist goals. If we take Artsakh itself, nowhere in the Koran does it say that it was necessary to annihilate Christians. The captured terrorist stated that we were sent here to fight the infidels. There is no such requirement anywhere in the Koran, it is absent. On the contrary, Christians, like Jews and Zoroastrians, are people of the Book."

Babyan remarked: "Jesus (Isa in Islam) in general is one of the greatest prophets of Islam, and it is he who must perform the Last judgment. Exactly he will destroy Dajjal, the Muslim analog of the Antichrist who will pretend to be Isa. During his ascension (Miraj), Muhammad tried to better consider the prophet Isa so as not to confuse him with Dajjal.

That is, no Muslim has the right to raise his hand against a Christian only because of his faith. What‘s more, the Koran considers it unacceptable to destroy holy places. What is Erdogan doing? The cathedral "Hagia Sophia" has been turned again into a mosque, in what there is no necessity. And he tries to destroy the Cathedral of Christ the Savior Gazanchetsots in Shushi. "What is that other than perjury? Karabakh and Artsakh in general has a special place in the history of Islam. For those who do not know I will remind it. Without Karabakh, in the 10th century, Islam as a religion would have ceased to exist. Babek, a man who intended to destroy Islam in the Arab Caliphate, was captured here when he had already almost done it. It was his captivity that allowed Islam to survive."

Babayan added: "Erdogan and Aliyev himself violate the fundamental principles of Islam, as well as the history of their own religion. What does the religious component have to do with it? There is an impudent manipulation of the feelings of ordinary Muslims. We are grateful to many Muslim countries that gave us shelter in 1915 - Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran. How can we forget all this?

But now they opened the fire on the mosque in Shushi because it is Shiite, Iranian. They send to the forefront representatives of national minorities - Lezgins, Talysh, Avars. Aren't they Muslims? They are representatives of another nation, another ethnic group. In Baku, they want to destroy them too, fearing that tomorrow national liberation movements may appear there too. And why do national liberation movements appear - because minorities are oppressed. This is the problem."