YEREVAN — Geographer and cartographer Rouben Galichian spoke about the baseless demands and threats of Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia. Galichian is the author of many articles published in the world press and books about the Caucasus region. He has lectured extensively in the United States, Russia, Iran and elsewhere.
He declares that Azerbaijan’s territorial claims have no legal basis and cannot be satisfied, because they are just wishes, not documents.
“The map that the prime minister [of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan] presents, according to which Armenia should have an area of 29,800 square kilometers, is a map drawn by the military headquarters of the Soviet Union, which was begun in the 1930s and completed in the 1970s and 1980s,” he said. Galichian believes that this map is not very accurate and is not in the best interests of Armenia, because it is based on many falsifications and a number of territories of Armenia are given to Azerbaijan illegally and without grounds. Instead, he suggests that Armenians should work with older maps, which are drawn on a fairer legal basis and, moreover, are recognized by both countries.
He explained: “We need to ensure that the process is carried out with the map drawn in 1926, which is an official publication ratified by the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union. This is the most official [map], dated April 1, 1926. There are no enclaves on this map. All enclaves on this map are within the territory of Armenia, and the territory of Armenia is greater than 31,000 square kilometers. Our target should be to reach this, which is the first map of the Soviet Union. They also prepared the same map for Azerbaijan signed on the same day of the same year, and it gives exactly the same borders, and it can be seen that there are no enclaves in Armenia. But the most important thing is that in that map, Artsakh and Armenia are next to each other – they are neighbors. Only the Aghavno River separates them, but a few years after that, a piece was taken from the Berdzor region of Artsakh, so that Armenia is separated from Artsakh by 15 kilometers.”
Galichian related that during the Soviet years, the Azerbaijani authorities did everything in order to extract as much territory as possible from Armenia, hiding this plan under the guise of “friendship”. He said: “A number of territories of Armenia, including the Al Lakes, were gradually given to Azerbaijan from 1929 to 1948, most of them in 1928-29. In 1923, Azerbaijan announced that they would create the Red Kurdistan province, where all Kurds living in Azerbaijan should reside, so that they could graze their cattle. They managed to get those territories taken from Armenia, so it turned out that Artsakh from Kovsakan to Karvachar was cut off from Armenia. But during that time, the Armenian peasant was cut off from his livelihood. This happened at the expense of the Armenian peasant’s bread. About 1,000 square kilometers were given to Azerbaijan, but when the plan to create Red Kurdistan was canceled in 1932-1933, these lands were not returned to Armenia, but remained to Azerbaijan. Today we can legally present the issue to the international court that this land was illegally given to Azerbaijan.”
The expert is certain that lengthy work in international courts can give some results and not only curb Azerbaijan’s appetite, but also “bring it to justice.” He also believes that Azerbaijan poses a threat to the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia with its fake maps.
