Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in his recent speech, did not say that there is no “Sevan,” but there is “Goycha”; he stated that according to the maps of Tsarist Russia, there is no “Sevan,” but there is “Goycha.” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told this to a press briefing Thursday, in connection with Lake Sevan of Armenia. 

“On the map being referenced, it says ‘Hayastan [i.e. the Armenian word for ‘Armenia’]’ where Armenia is, but there is no ‘Azerbaijan’ at all. And how to interpret that?” he noted.

Pashinyan added that not a single Armenian reporter tried to find out whether that map exists or not. In his assessment, if that map is made public and becomes unfavorable for Armenia, it may be twice as unfavorable for Azerbaijan.

Pashinyan called this a pointless exercise, because by being guided by maps from earlier eras, it could turn out that neither the Republic of Armenia nor the Republic of Azerbaijan existed.

The Armenian premier once again called this a meaningless topic, especially after the agreements reached in Washington on August 8. “And who has said that those are Azerbaijani names? They are Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Mongolian, Russian. But what does that change? Nothing,” Nikol Pashinyan concluded.