BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 29. While defining the border, we should take into account history and, of course, the maps which were available and which are available after the Sovietization of the Southern Caucasus, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said addressing the international conference under the motto “South Caucasus: Development and Cooperation”, Trend reports.
"Taking about the maps, so far we do not have any kind of basis for that and we haven’t seen the maps which you mentioned. Our position is that while defining the border, we should take into account history and, of course, the maps which were available and which are available after the Sovietization of the Southern Caucasus. We cannot concentrate on only one map, there have been many maps starting 1918 when Iravan was part of Azerbaijan and also before November 1920 when Zangazur was part of Azerbaijan. What is today the Iranian-Armenian border was inhabited by Azerbaijanis and had no relation to Armenian nation. In November 1920, it was a decision of the Soviet government to give Zangazur to Armenia. But, when it was given to Armenia, it was not given in today’s shape – not in 42 kilometers, but much narrower. Then, by different tricks Armenians managed to expand the territory, which today is the only border between Armenia and Iran, and expanded up to 42 kilometers. Therefore, our position is that we will take all the maps starting from, for instance, 1918 or even before, until 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. But, that, of course, will be part of negotiations of our joint working groups," the head of state said.