Geographers assess role of Soviet maps in settling Armenian-Azerbaijani border dispute

The map of Azerbaijan placed on the UN website, which was referred to by the journalist, Khadija Ismayilova, who urged to take it into account when defining the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, corresponds to the Soviet small-scale maps, said Alexei Gunya. The most accurate maps of that time were drawn up by the General Staff, and Russia is ready to provide them to Armenia and Azerbaijan, Nikolai Silaev has pointed out. The maps of past years can only be used as an additional tool in solving the dispute, says Alexander Panin.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that both parties in conflict suffered their last combat losses on November 16. The Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, stated that he would accept the proposals of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) to start preparing the delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

Alexei Gunya, a senior researcher at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), has noted that large-scale maps are needed to demarcate borders.

The most accurate maps and descriptions of the borders of the union republics of the former USSR had been drawn up by the Soviet General Staff, although there are a number of questions about them, said Nikolai Silaev, a leading researcher at the Institute for International Studies of the MGIMO (Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations).

None of the most accurate maps will be the final solution to the dispute, says Alexander Panin, an advisor to the rector of the North-Caucasian Federal University. He has noted that some see "some sacred knowledge" in cartography, although this is essentially a political act.

According to Mr Panin, the definition of the modern borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will be conducted randomly.