Inter- religious dialogue forum held in Tirana

TIRANA, Jan 18 – The Forum on Inter – Religious Dialogue for Southeast Europe was held last week in Tirana as part of the UN Alliance of Civilizations.
The Forum was initiated by the Albanian government to promote the culture of peace, understanding, inter-religious and inter-ethnic dialogue in Southeast Europe.
As a multi-century example of inter-religious harmony, co-habitation and understanding, symbolized at best by the spirit of profound respect among the three major religious country’s communities – Moslem, Orthodox and Catholic, Albania launched this initiative to institutionalize a mechanism of periodic meetings among the SEE countries, designed to enable, through constructive dialogue, the exchange of positive experiences on the inter-religious, inter-ethnic and inter-cultural cooperation in the region.
In attendance were representatives of the governments of Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosova, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Slovenia, as well as representatives from the EU, the Council of Europe, OSBE-ODIHR, UNESCO and diplomats.
Albanian Deputy Prime Minister Genc Pollo spoke of his country’s desire to make available the experience in inter-religious dialogue and cooperation in order to promote this dialogue on a regional level.
The Forum also passed the Tirana Declaration which promotes inter-religious, inter-ethnic and inter-cultural cooperation in the region in four major areas -education, youth, migration and media.
The Tirana Declaration asserted that such meetings would be held every two years.