Baku, August 12 (AZERTAC). President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended an Iftar party on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan hosted by Head of the Caucasian Muslims` Board Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade at his residence on Friday.

The Iftar party was opened by Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade.

He thanked the Head of State for accepting his invitation to attend the event.

Pashazade praised national leader Heydar Aliyev`s role in preserving religious values in Azerbaijan. He also lauded President Ilham Aliyev`s successful continuation of the national leader`s strategy, adding this allowed Azerbaijan to have become one of the important countries in the world.

Pashazade emphasized the fact Baku hosted a summit of the world`s religious leaders, world intercultural dialogue forum and other events of international importance, saying “this proves how much importance Azerbaijan attaches to preserving cultural values”.

Other speakers including Head of the Baku and Caspian Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church Father Alexander, head of the community of Mountain Jews Semyon Ikhiilov, ecclesiastical superior of Vatican`s "sui iuris" mission Vladimir Fekete and head of the Albanian-Udin Christian community Robert Mobili praised the level of tolerance in Azerbaijan.

Speaking to the event, President Ilham Aliyev said Iftar party had become a good tradition in Azerbaijan. He noted that started by national leader Heydar Aliyev and Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, this tradition is continued successfully today.

The President praised the government-religion relations in the country, saying they were exemplary.

He said Azerbaijan is a place where representatives of different nations and religions coexist in peace and harmony.

President Aliyev lauded Pashazade`s role in ensuring high-level government-religion relations.

The Head of State said Azerbaijan is home to world-scale interfaith and intercultural dialogue.

He noted democratic, political and religious reforms were factors conditioning Azerbaijan`s sustainable development.

On the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, President Aliyev expressed confidence the problem will be solved based on international legal norms and the principle of the country`s territorial integrity. 

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