_WORLD WATCH______________________________
____________________ Azerbaijan ________________

Papal visit scheduled?
Plans point to 2002
Pope John Paul II may travel to Azerbaijan in 2002, according to press reports.
Russian press agencies have reported that the Holy Father has written to Azerbaijan’s President Heidar Aliev, responding positively to an invitation that the president extended last September. The stories indicate that the papal trip could be arranged sometime next year.

According to the Russian reports, the Pope’s letter to President Aliev expresses regrets that he was not able to visit Azerbaijan during the recent trip that took him to Kazakhstan and Armenia. The Pontiff reportedly explained that he could not schedule the extra stop because he had to return to Rome in time for the Synod of Bishops.

Diplomatic concerns, as well as scheduling problems, might have weighed against any attempt to add Azerbaijan to the itinerary for the Pope’s trip in September. Although it would have made sense for the Pope to travel from Armenia into neighboring Azerbaijan, the two countries are still engaged in a dispute over the contested province of Nagorno-Karabkh, and Vatican planners may have felt by crossing the border himself, the Pope could have called unwanted attention to the simmering border conflict.

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