Iravaban.net spoke with cartographer Ruben Galchyan, about the current situation in Armenia and the beginning of demarcation and delimitation processes. Mr. Galchyan presented in detail about what results to expect as a result of these processes, why these maps were chosen, and from which territories of the RA should the Azerbaijani troops leave as well as other details?
– Mr. Galchyan, how did it happen that we have so-called enclaves in our territory?
– The formation of enclaves is an interesting phenomenon. The enclave did not exist until 1936. At the time when Azerbaijan was formed as a Republic, as a new country, no enclave existed in its territory. When Azerbaijan declares that according to its Constitution, it is the heir of 1918-1920. Azerbaijan, there were no enclaves in Armenia during that time, and there were no exclaves either.
The first enclave appeared on the maps in 1936. Those were the 2 enclaves of Tavush, which the Soviet military headquarters decided to emphasize, to say that this belongs to Azerbaijan. In 1939, Kyarki-Tigranashen was added to the list of enclaves and was given to Azerbaijan as an enclave. There is no legal basis for all of them, there is no document in the archives that Armenia agreed to hand over these territories to Azerbaijan.
– What is the difference between an enclave and an exclave?
– There are 3 Azerbaijani enclaves in our country. Since it is in our country, we are an enclave, we surrounded it. From Azerbaijan’s point of view, Azerbaijan has 3 exclaves, territories outside its territory, in Armenia. We also have an exclave on the territory of Azerbaijan, Artsvashen, which is an Armenian enclave from Azerbaijan’s point of view.
– Why are delimitation and demarcation carried out with these maps?
– We are putting on the table a map of our last borders, and the last borders we have are the maps drawn by the Soviet headquarters during Soviet times, which were drawn from 1972-1973 to 1983-84, this is exactly the same series as decided in Almaty, according to which our borders would be drawn using these maps. Since we want to draw a border that means that this border drawn on paper has problems. That is why we have to sit with our neighbor and negotiate where those problems are.
Details in the video.
