Political scientist: Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have the analogs of  the same maps that are in the General staff of the Russian Federation

ArmInfo. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have the analogs of the same maps that are in the General Staff of the Russian Federation, to which Russian President Putin  referred in his Valdai speech.  Chairman of the Armenian Constructive  Party, political scientist Andrias Ghukasyan, expressed a similar  opinion to ArmInfo.

"There was a corresponding service in the USSR, in whose department  were all Union maps, including maps of the administrative borders of  the republics. Naturally, there are analogs of these maps in the  corresponding administrative bodies of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Thus,  having mentioned the exclusive maps, that are in the General Staff of  the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin tried to give Russia another  exclusive role in the proposed process of determining the state  border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, "he said.

In reality, Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to Ghukasyan, have  presented these very maps to the UN several times in recent years.   Accordingly, in theory, Russia cannot and should not play any special  role in the process of delimitation - demarcation of borders. In this  light, the political scientist suggested that the rest of the OSCE  Minsk Group co-chairing countries, France and the United States, are  unlikely to be subjected to such manipulation attempts.

According to Ghukasyan, the OSCE substantial experience and special  tools in the field of border demarcation reinforces this fact. What  the European Commission has already stated. In his opinion, against  this background, Moscow seeks to demonstrate that it has some special  opportunities in order to justify the preservation of the trilateral  format of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan in the issue of border  delimitation.

In general, according to the political scientist, the United States  and France continue to provide effective resistance to the plans of  the Russian Federation for the final monopolization of the settlement  of the conflict around Artsakh. Which, according to him, found  expression in December 2020, when Washington and Paris failed the  signing of an agreement by Armenia and Azerbaijan to end the Karabakh  conflict initiated by Moscow, bypassing the OSCE. According to  Ghukasyan, the United States and France threatened the Russian  Federation and Azerbaijan in this case to recognize the independence  of the Republic of Artsakh.  

"It is clear that this was done not at all due to the existence of  any special disposition of American and French politicians towards  the Armenian people. The signing of such an agreement, bypassing the  coordination of the subject of the conflict - the status of Artsakh,  excludes the specifics of international law.  It is also important to  note that the perpetrators responsible for unleashing the violence of  the second Artsakh war have not yet been identified. I think that we  will receive an answer to this question from the Council of Europe in  the coming months. Azerbaijan grossly violated its own obligations to  the Council of Europe, which may well lead to its recognition as an  aggressor, "Ghukasyan summed up.