In the Name of the Almighty Creator!
We are marking the 6th anniversary of 27 September 2020, a date forever engraved in the history of the Azerbaijani people. Not only for us, but for all of humanity, this date will remain in memory forever as the day on which Truth and Justice were manifested, and as the starting point of the path to the Great Victory. Our people will forever keep this Remembrance Day alive as a chronicle of honour, of heroism and martyrdom for the Motherland!
The war that began on 27 September and lasted 44 days went down in history as the glorious victory of the Azerbaijani Army, concluded by the enemy's act of complete capitulation. On 8 November, an end was put to Armenia's 30-year policy of occupation. On its ancestral lands, Azerbaijan raised its tricolour flag, which National Leader Heydar Aliyev called "the symbol of our statehood and independence." We take pride in the fact that the author of this Victory and its triumphant commander is Supreme Commander-in-Chief Mr. Ilham Aliyev, a great son of the Azerbaijani people whose name has been inscribed on the golden pages of history. Throughout those 44 days, his determination, resolve, valour and courage gave unforgettable moments to everyone — to the soldiers of our army, to the sons and daughters of our nation, and to all citizens of our country regardless of their religion or language. The international community witnessed the strength of Azerbaijan's political leader and the unshakable unity of people and government in our country.
The international community must be well aware that the reasons that led us to 27 September are extremely serious and undeniable facts. For nearly 30 years, Armenia kept 20 percent of our country's territory under occupation. The occupation was accompanied by war crimes and crimes against humanity. As a result of the ethnic cleansing carried out by Armenia, more than one million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced persons. Failing to comply with the resolutions of the UN Security Council and emboldened by impunity, Armenia chose to continue the occupation and deliberately disrupted the negotiation process. In July 2020, Armenia committed a military provocation along the state border with Azerbaijan. Artillery fire directed at Azerbaijan's Tovuz district killed 13 servicemen and civilians. Later, in August, an Armenian sabotage group crossed the former line of contact and attempted to commit acts of terror against Azerbaijani servicemen and civilians, but this was successfully prevented. In response to Armenia's large-scale attack on Azerbaijan's military positions and civilians, on 27 September Azerbaijan, exercising its right to self-defence enshrined in the UN Charter, launched a counter-offensive operation against Armenia on its own territory.
Over the 44 days, the armed forces of Armenia intensively shelled our districts and towns located along the front line — Aghdam, Aghjabadi, Beylagan, Dashkasan, Fuzuli, Goranboy and Tartar. The Armenian armed forces, which had destroyed Muslim and Christian places of worship in our occupied territories and which violated the laws of war, the norms of international law and the relevant provisions of the Geneva Conventions, used prohibited weapons and bombs to strike, from the line of contact, Ganja, Barda, Mingachevir, Gabala, Siyazan, Khizi and other cities located far from the front-line zone, causing the deaths of hundreds of innocent people, including children, women and the elderly, and striking civilian settlements. Even the capital, Baku, was a target of Armenian missile attacks. Because of the mines laid in our territories during the occupation, civilians and servicemen continue to be killed and injured to this day.
We, the heads of the religious confessions operating in Azerbaijan, worked intensively with all the religious centres and international bodies with which we cooperate in order to expose the war crimes committed by the Armenian side against our people during the Patriotic War and after the Victory, as well as the disinformation and groundless accusations it spread. We made the crimes against the civilian population of Azerbaijan known throughout the world; all confessions together appealed to the world community, international organisations and religious centres, and issued joint statements. In those days, as always, all the religious confessions operating in Azerbaijan stood united and, shoulder to shoulder, supported our righteous struggle together. Today as well, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Jews and Albanian-Udis in Azerbaijan, together with Muslims, surround the families of the Motherland's martyrs with attention and care and honour their memory with dignity.
For the liberation of our long-yearned-for Karabakh, our sons sacrificed their lives for the sake of God and the Motherland, and entrusted the Victory they won with their blood to the Azerbaijani people. In the struggle for the liberation of Karabakh during the Patriotic War, drawing on the values of tolerance and multiculturalism traditionally present in Azerbaijan, all our citizens rallied ever more closely around the Head of State of Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev, demonstrating their loyalty to the Motherland. Hundreds of our heroes, such as Polad Hashimov, Mubariz Ibrahimov, Albert Agarunov, Denis Pronin, Yakovlev, Polovinko, Senyushkin and others, rose to the summit of martyrdom for their native Azerbaijan. Their cherished memory will live forever in our hearts and will always be remembered with reverence. We pray to God for mercy upon every one of our martyrs who gave their lives for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country, and for healing for our war veterans.
Today, we are immensely gladdened by the large-scale reconstruction work, planned and now being carried out at a rapid pace, to overcome the bitter consequences of Armenian vandalism on Azerbaijani lands — the restoration of barbarically destroyed towns, villages and spiritual sites, and the clearing of our lands of mines. The call to prayer rising once again from restored historic mosques, and the places of worship and Christian churches being restored and rebuilt, are a manifestation of the tolerant state policy of Azerbaijan, which values its spiritual heritage and multicultural religious legacy as a national treasure, revives it and preserves it. The whole world is witness to the traditional attention and care shown to high spiritual values by His Excellency Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and by First Vice-President Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva, and to their contributions not only in Azerbaijan but in various parts of the world, including the restoration of catacombs in the Vatican and of mosques and churches in Serbia. Our state, which has preserved the Armenian church in the centre of Baku, is restoring Orthodox and Armenian churches in Shusha alongside our mosques. This is a vivid manifestation of the care and patronage extended to spiritual values by the Azerbaijani people and the Azerbaijani state.
The main purpose of us, as clergy, is to recall the lessons of history in order to prevent future wars, the loss of innocent lives, acts of terror and conflicts. With this intention, on 27 September, Remembrance Day, which is inscribed in our calendar as the beginning of the path to the Great Victory, we pray to the Almighty Creator for mercy upon our heroic martyrs. May our Exalted Lord protect the state and people of Azerbaijan and always grant them victory! May the Almighty Creator help us establish peace and justice in the world! Amen!

Chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Board
Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur PASHAZADE

Chairman of the Religious Community of Mountain Jews
Milikh YEVDAYEV

Bishop of the Azerbaijan Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church
ALEXIY

Chairman of the Albanian-Udi Religious Community
Robert MOBILI

Chairman of the Baku Religious Community of Sephardic Jews
Zamir ISAYEV

Deputy Chairman of the Religious Community of European Jews
Yevgeni BRENNEYSEN

Baku, 24 September 2026