Mirzoyan comments on Aliyev’s statement regarding Lake Sevan

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, speaking with journalists, commented on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s recent statement concerning Lake Sevan.

“I don’t think it is correct to say that Aliyev says that ‘today there is no Lake Sevan, there is Goycha.’ In any case, this is not the most constructive wording, and it can hardly be described as fitting into a narrative of peace,” Mirzoyan said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev recently declared that “on old Russian imperial maps from the early 20th century, it is clearly visible that almost all toponyms on the territory of present-day Armenia are of Azerbaijani origin: there is no Lake Sevan, there is Lake Goycha. These maps were not drawn by us — they were made by Tsarist Russia, which at the time resettled Armenians from Iran and Eastern Anatolia into Karabakh to change the ethnic composition.” He added that the return of Azerbaijanis to Armenia “should not frighten the Armenian people.”