Cartographer: Azerbaijan must withdraw from Armenian land

PanARMENIAN.Net - According to a document signed on August 8 in Washington, Azerbaijan must return occupied territories to Armenia, cartographer Rouben Galichian said.

He noted that the issue concerns about 240 square kilometers, a matter previously raised by Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, reports Pastinfo.

“Under the agreement signed on August 8 in Washington, Azerbaijan must return those territories to Armenia. Therefore, the Armenian side should raise the question of when Azerbaijan intends to vacate them.

The agreement states that the parties must return to the borders defined by the Alma-Ata Declaration. The question now is whether Azerbaijan will fulfill that obligation. However, construction of positions and roads continues in those areas,” he said.

Referring to images published by Arman Tatoyan, leader of the Wings of Unity party, and claims that a new Azerbaijani position appeared in Armenian territory after July 30, 2025, Galichian said that state borders are not visible in satellite images.

“When you look at real satellite images, you do not see borders—there are no lines. We do not even have a clearly drawn boundary there. When you open Google and search for Armenia, it shows certain borders, but those are drawn by Google and have no legal value. Mr. Tatoyan assumed that line is the actual border and concluded where positions were built. However, nothing is visible in the indicated location in the image—it is clear, while in other areas white lines and structures are visible. It is impossible to accurately determine positions based on Google maps, as even a one-millimeter deviation on the map can correspond to more than a hundred meters in reality,” he said.

According to Galichian, the presented positions may have been built over the past two to three years in areas that Azerbaijan has occupied from Armenia.

Commenting on Defense Minister Suren Papikyan’s statement that no new Azerbaijani positions have appeared in Armenian territories since 2021, Galichian said this does not correspond to reality.

“If the statement referred to the period after 2023, it could be discussed, but saying it since 2021 is not correct. In the summer of 2023, about 240 square kilometers were seized from Armenia in the Jermuk direction, and since then the situation has not changed,” he said.

On August 8, during a trilateral meeting at the White House involving Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, a joint declaration was signed on the results of the Washington meeting.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov initialed the agreement “On the establishment of peace and interstate relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan” in the presence of the countries’ leaders.