The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan stated that “unlike Armenia, the delimitation process that Azerbaijan has carried out so far with some of its neighbors was not carried out on the basis of a specially selected map, but based on analyzes and the study of all documents of legal importance.” And it added: “The application of this practice is also possible in the case of Armenia. In this case, it would be more useful for the Armenian side to start delimitation works instead of insisting on the 1975 map.”
Surveyor-cartographer Shahen Shahinyan, the guest of the Aravot’s “Areresum” (“Confrontation”) program, who is the author of the “Elma” electronic map, said, referring to this proposal. “I have mentioned many times before that it is essential to choose the principles of delimitation. And as we have seen, Azerbaijanis are already spreading information on that topic.
They have their codes; that is, they do not want to have a clear basis for demarcation works, to have some formulations, for example, legal expediency and economic benefit. Yes, they are applied in international practice, but they must be mutually agreed upon. Since 2020, we have been stating that we should go through the process of delimitation after choosing a principle and proposing that principle from our side. It can be the proposal of Soviet administrative-territorial maps, regardless of the year, and different principles, even the de facto situation of the 90s.
The specialists of Armenia and Azerbaijan should already evaluate it. And it is imperative to understand that diplomats, cartographers, and historians should participate in choosing a principle.” He regretted that he did not see that Armenia records a direction. “We have heard various announcements at different times, where at first a map of a certain date was fixed, then the date of the map was changed, and then it was generally said that we should do with the situation of the 90s. At least I haven’t heard an officially formulated principle.”
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The other guest of the program, Hamo Sukiasyan, Head of the Department of Social Sciences of the National Agrarian University of Armenia, candidate of historical sciences, who is the author of scientific works on border issues, answered the question of whether the proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan makes sense because the maps on the borders are known, they are not final documents, they are auxiliary materials attached to the primary documents, he said: “It was already mentioned that it is an option accepted in international practice. And if we look at the history of Armenian-Azerbaijani demarcations, which began in the 1920s and the last document signed between the parties was on January 12, 1988, during that time, we had documents, in particular, the Armenian-Azerbaijani document of 1969, which mentions a separate determining the ownership of disputed plots in the regions.
Probably, based on the Armenian-Azerbaijani treaty signed in May 1969, the maps of the USSR General Staff of the 1970s were created. There are those documents, both sides have them, and the original is kept in the archives of the Russian Federation.” He concluded that the parties could refer to that contract. “In addition to a mere map, which is primarily a mere drawing based on documents, we have to look at the documents of the time and delineate and demarcate based on them.”
Anna ISRAYELYAN
