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.