BAKU (Armenpress)–His Holiness Pope of Rome John Paul II will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan May 22-26. According to the program of the visit–the Pope will meet with the president of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev–Parliament Speaker Murtuz Aleskerov–Foreign Affairs Minister Vilayat Guliev–as well as the spiritual leader of Caucasus Moslems Allahshyukyur Pashazadeh. The visit will not be spiritual but a state one.
The visit of the Pope should have been paid in September–2001 after his visits to Armenia and Kazakhstan–but it was put off because of His Holiness’s poor health conditions.
Pope John Paul II is the first Pope who entered a mosque and always keeps in touch with numerous Islamic scientists and spiritual leaders.