During another of his “peaceful outbursts,” Azerbaijan’s leader launched new “attacks” against Armenia and, in particular, Lake Sevan.

Again blaming the Armenian people for the hardships suffered by Azerbaijanis, Ilham Aliyev stated that “Azerbaijanis must know their rich history, their ancient state traditions.”

“Our people have always lived in vast territories, and Azerbaijanis continue to live on both sides of our current borders.” This statement, of course, “in no way reflects” Aliyev’s territorial claims.

“Azerbaijanis have never suffered from the ‘disease of separatism.’ On the contrary, they contribute to the development of the statehood of the countries where they live. Therefore, the return of Azerbaijanis to their historical lands — present-day Armenia — should not frighten the Armenian people. I have already said that we must return there not with tanks, but with cars. For that, state structures, NGOs, and, of course, scholars must all work,” Aliyev said in his speech at the meeting dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.

According to him, “scholars have already prepared many works on this topic, but there must be even more — scientific research, exhibitions, publications, historical maps.”

“In old Russian imperial maps of the early 20th century, it is clearly visible that almost all place names in the present territory of Armenia have Azerbaijani origins. There is no ‘Lake Sevan,’ there is ‘Lake Goycha.’ We did not draw those maps — they were drawn by Tsarist Russia, which at the time resettled Armenians from Iran and Eastern Anatolia to Karabakh in order to change its ethnic composition. Those maps are a reflection of historical truth. We must study and promote them,” Aliyev said, thus directly instructing the fabrication of false historical “facts,” for which “Azerbaijani scholars” are already well known.

As often happens, however, the aforesaid maps to which Aliyev refers contain no trace of the existence of Azerbaijanis. They show the Baku Governorate, which was much smaller than present-day Azerbaijan, as well as the Elizavetpol Governorate of Tsarist Russia, which at the time included the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh, and correspondingly, the Yerevan Governorate.