INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE IN THE ERA OF GLOBALISATION: THE EXAMPLE OF AZERBAIJAN

“And good and evil are not alike, repel evil with that which is best. And lo, he, between whom and thyself was enmity, will become as though he were a warm friend.” (The Holy Qur’an, 41:35) “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew, 5:9) For centuries most tragic pages of the human history have been associated with religious conflicts, on the way to solve which people appealed to values of interfaith tolerance and principles of interreligious dialogue. Events of September the 11th once again emphasised the importance of raising public awareness in the need of the dialogue between cultures and religions. This dialogue will be especially crucial considering the fact that it will take place in conditions of currently on-going processes of globalisation. Deep-rooted crises preceding, accompanying and following collapse of the Soviet Union have been largely responsible for escalation of interethnic conflicts in post-Soviet space. In Transcaucasus conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Georgia and Abkhazia, Georgia and Southern Ossetia resulted in terrible violence and human lives’ losses. However, the Transcaucasus region, besides being since perestroika one of the epicentres of interethnic instability, possesses enough potential of becoming in the future a place of more violent interreligious conflicts. The main reasons for this are multireligious composition of the region’s population and poor economic conditions of its countries. In this regard Azerbaijan due to its rich history of religious tolerance is of special importance in the era of globalisation, because it can serve as a model for all the countries of the region in the way to achieve interreligious dialogue and provide religious tolerance.