"We are very upset at the fact that important politicians, international organizations and the media call a dangerous terrorist organization the 'Islamic State,'" Amram Petrosyan, the group's president, told the Izvestiya newspaper.
"In our view, this is unjust and even provocative. We know that Muslims, Christians and people of other confessions always lived peacefully in the Middle East. If there were conflicts between communities, they were the fault of politicians and national leaders."
"Fighters engaging in a bloody war need to be called terrorists, never Muslims. The very name of this terrorist organization in official documents as the 'Islamic State,' creates the basis for xenophobia and religious intolerance."
The letter requesting a ban on the term 'Islamic' was sent by representatives of the international 'New Armenia' organization in Syria, Lebanon, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Montenegro and Serbia on October 7.
"The Armenian militia as part of the Syrian National Defense Force, together with our Muslim brothers with whom Armenians have lived for more than ten centuries, through the good times and the bad, and regardless of religious affiliations, today are fighting the terrorists side by side," said Viken Glchyan.
"Shedding blood together with Muslims against terrorists, we are upset when civilized countries call them the 'Islamic State.'"
The letter from the Armenian diaspora follows a similar call from Russia's Central Muslim Spiritual Board, which condemned the terrorist organization's use of the term 'Islamic,' and suggested it instead be called 'Daesh,' the Arabic abbreviation for ISIL. On September 30 the Board announced its "resolute support" for Russia's military intervention to help the Syrian government fight the terror group.
