YEREVAN — Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev continues to inflame tensions over Armenian sovereignty, asserting that the “return of Azerbaijanis to present-day Armenian territory” should not alarm the Armenian people or state. Speaking at the 80th anniversary of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Aliyev announced that under his directive, extensive geological work has been underway in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur for several months, suggesting that “in the coming months, we will begin to receive very good news.”
Aliyev framed these actions as part of a broader effort to reinterpret the region’s historical narrative. He claimed that pre-Soviet Russian imperial maps show that nearly all current Armenian toponyms are of Azerbaijani origin, asserting that Lake Sevan did not exist historically but was called “Goycha.” According to Aliyev, Armenians were relocated to Karabakh from Iran and Eastern Anatolia under Russian imperial policy, allegedly to alter the ethnic composition of the region. He emphasized that Azerbaijan intends to continue producing scientific research, exhibitions, publications and historical maps to support these claims — portraying them as an objective reflection of history.
In Yerevan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan delivered a speech at the “Orbeli Forum 2025: Building Peace and Multilateral Cooperation.” He responded by contextualizing Aliyev’s statements within a broader socio-psychological framework. Pashinyan stressed that Armenians had never experienced lasting peace and that conflict had shaped the foundation of the country’s independence: “We have never known what peace truly is. Even prior to independence, our relationships were defined by conflict. We gained independence thanks to the energy derived from conflict.” He added that while more than 30 years of political conflict have formally ended, it is impossible to switch off its psychological and social impact, which continues to surface in statements by officials, experts and media in both countries.
Regarding the continued regional “peace” between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Pashinyan suggested that Armenia must define a starting point for its historical narrative. “We have already created a new history, and we must continue to build it. Historical socio-psychology is not like a switch to be turned on and off; we must separate the past from the future,” he explained. He emphasized that the future began in 2024 and that present-day Armenia exists in this forward-looking reality.
Pashinyan responded directly to Aliyev’s remarks about Lake Sevan being called “Goycha,” and other symbolic provocations from Baku, noting that Azerbaijanis react to flags in Armenia’s parliament and replicate territorial claims in rhetoric. “They say, ‘If you display flags, we call Goycha; if you mention Jrakan, we say Gandzak, Kovsakan or Kashatagh. They even assert that Yerevan is historically Azerbaijani,’” he added.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan similarly attempted to contextualize Aliyev’s rhetoric, clarifying that while Tsarist maps may have used the term Goycha, it is not accurate to claim that Aliyev today is denying the existence of Lake Sevan. Mirzoyan called the wording “unconstructive” and emphasized that Armenia focuses on today’s recognized borders and mutual agreements, such as the Alma-Ata documents on territorial recognition, which carry far more weight than historical cartography disputes.
Deputy Speaker Alen Simonyan also downplayed the threat in Aliyev’s statements, asserting that the president’s remarks are intended for domestic Azerbaijani audiences, not as a signal of imminent military action. “I do not see anything in Aliyev’s statements suggesting tanks or forceful action. His speech does not follow the logic of operational threats; it is aimed at his internal audience. Responding to that internally is meaningless,” Simonyan stated.
Despite these reassurances, criticism from opposition figures has been sharp and pointed. Ishkhan Saghatelyan, MP of the “Hayastan” Alliance and representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) in the Armenian Supreme Council, condemned both Aliyev’s declarations and the Armenian government’s muted response. He emphasized the risks of the August 8 pre-agreement with Azerbaijan, noting that the document “does not include a single clause that would limit Azerbaijan’s demands, actions or declarations regarding Armenia.” He outlined several key flaws:
- Azerbaijan has not recognized Armenia’s territory with clearly defined borders.
- The agreement does not restrain new Azerbaijani demands against Armenia.
- It fails to secure the rights of Karabakh Armenians to return while leaving the door open for Azerbaijanis to settle in Armenian territory.
Saghatelyan further highlighted that immediately following the pre-agreement, Aliyev referred to the road passing through Syunik as a “corridor,” described Armenian society as “sick” and openly discussed new territorial demands. Meanwhile, the Armenian government has failed to respond assertively and has arguably bolstered Aliyev’s position by labeling those presenting facts as “revanchists,” claiming Azerbaijani-controlled territories are under Armenian jurisdiction, initiating constitutional amendments and reducing military funding and service terms.
“This short period has been enough for Pashinyan and Aliyev, with their own hands, to burst the bubble they were inflating for months, convincing the population that peace has been achieved,” Saghatelyan warned.
Political analyst Alen Ghevondyan cautioned residents of Gegharkunik about potential policy shifts following the 2026 elections. He suggested that Pashinyan could respond to Aliyev’s claims that Lake Sevan historically belongs to Azerbaijan, referring to it as “Goycha,” by proposing joint management of the lake with Azerbaijan.
Ghevondyan warned that Pashinyan may frame this move as part of a “unilateral peace agenda” and could even advocate for the return of Azerbaijani populations who lived in the region during the Soviet era. He further emphasized that such developments would represent a dramatic shift in Armenia’s territorial and environmental policy, with significant implications for national sovereignty over one of its most important natural landmarks.
Ghevondyan urged residents to keep these potential outcomes in mind as the 2026 elections approach, highlighting broader consequences for regional stability and local governance. He concluded by noting that the government’s conciliatory posture risks normalizing revisionist territorial claims under the guise of peace, warning that symbolic gestures and rhetorical appeasement are insufficient when Baku prepares openly, speaks clearly and acts decisively.
You can’t appease a wolf.
It is up to the Armenian people to decide in June 2026 :
Choose between :
– the appeasers who’ll bow down to the Pashas
Or
– the patriots who’ll look the Pashas in the eye and will not flinch.
Hayastan or Ermenistan.
Where are Charles and Sevan Balci now? Both claiming that Turks and Armenians are brotherly peoples and you need to get “Russian kartoshkas” out of Armenia?
Both wanted a plan of Armenia’s capitulation to the Turks
The historical revisionism aimed at disparaging Armenians has long been the state policy of this 107-year old Azerbaijan republic invented on occupied Armenian territories. The State policy of historical manipulation and the systematic promotion of anti-Armenian sentiment were fostered under the rule of Heydar Aliyev’s leadership and escalated under his son the current dictator and the chicken-hawk of artificial Azerbaijan republic. To legitimize the existence of illegitimate Azerbaijan republic requires delegitimization of the existence of Armenia and the Armenians in the region. An Armenia with ancient kings and kingdoms dating back to ancient Persian kings and their kingdoms. As a result, in this context and under false Azerbaijani narratives, Armenia is replaced with Albania (Caucasian) and Armenian with Turkish and so on. These history falsifications are part of a broader, state-sanctioned effort to delegitimize Armenian claims to the region’s history and territory, galvanize public opinion against Armenians, and provide a moral cover for military actions.
To claim that Armenians were relocated to Artsakh “Karabakh“ from Iran and Eastern Anatolia under Russian imperial policy, allegedly to alter the ethnic composition of the region is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. If that were the case, where did that 1,300-year old Armenian cemetery in Julfa-Nakhichevan come from that he ordered his defeated, morally-bankrupt and sadistic army desecrate and destroy in 2005 and build a military camp in its place? How would this Azerbaijani fascist thief explain the uprooting of over a quarter million indigenous Armenians from the region at the turn of 17th century and resettling them in Iran to alter the ethnic composition of the Armenian cities, towns and villages so as to lay claim to Armenian territories? This methodology of ethnically-cleansing Armenian territories from their Armenian inhabitants and replacing them with their Turkic kin also happened during the genocidal Ottoman period. The Ottoman Empire throughout its existence engaged in a dozen or so wars with Russia, needless to say was defeated in them all, and as a consequence the native Armenian populations were moved around, relocated, uprooted and ethnically cleansed and Turkic population from the North Caucasus and the Balkans, under their occupation at the time, brought in to replace the Armenians.
The problem is that we don’t have a real leader in office who can and must respond to historic fabrications of this Azerbaijani scoundrel Aliyev and that encourages him even more. In turn, Armenia’s incompetent and dysfunctional leader Pashinyan instead of hitting back at the enemy hard exposing their falsehoods, all he does is to excuse and explain away enemy’s belligerent nonsense acting as the enemy’s mouthpiece assuring his cheated ex followers that there is no need for any concern and continues feeding them his disastrous “era of peace” nonsense! Truly pathetic!
Boghos J, Bogus claims that I stated that the Turks/Azeris are brotherly peoples of the Armenians , does more to demonstrate the Kremlin lies and Soviet ignorance of which you are infused with. Those bizarre and false claims where made by a Sevan Peter B who would also claim about his beautiful wife and Mercedes car in Toronto. It was Russia who despite being Armenia protector sought Armenia defeat in 2020 so as to control Armenia better by weakening it and to woo Azerbaijan closer to Russia and further from its post independence closeness to Turkey and Israel. It nevertheless is clear in the years since that whilst weakening Armenia has less control over it than before and Azerbaijan only liked Russia as much as it needed to in a “thanks but no thanks we don’t need you anymore” action echoing Turkey with the Soviet Union a century before when it diminshed Armenia to curry favour with Turkic peoples only get little reward the difference this time is many Armenians have shifted away from Russia realising that whilst the Turks are enemies Russia hasn’t actually been the friend Armenians out of vulnerability from Turkic peoples had been keen out of wishful thinking to assume they were.
As @ Ararat states Azerbaijan is continuing its revisionist ahistorical fraudenlet reality in the long term the joke is on them in the meantime it’s a cause of concern for Armenia
The audacity of the ethnic cleanser, war criminal and mass murderer Ilham Aliyev knows no bounds. He violently ethnically cleansed all indigenous Armenians from their homeland Artsakh in 2023 (and his father Heydar, violently ethnically cleansed all Armenians from Azerbaijan in 1990), and now he cockily demands that hundreds of thousands of Azeris are allowed to settle in Armenia, so he can use them as a fifth column to invade Armenia, and tear off large chunks of Armenia’s territory, in addition to the 200 square kilometers of Armenian territory occupied by Azerbaijan in 2021. (For example, Hitler used the three million Sudeten Germans as a fifth column, to grab territory from Czechia, and later to invade all of it). What does Pashinyan do against Aliyev’s threats, and what did he do when Azerbaijan occupied 200 square kilometers of Armenian territory? Absolutely nothing! If this coward, appeaser, traitor and walking disaster called Pashinyan remains in power past June 2026, expect even worse things to happen to Armenia. The plight of Armenia is existential, and elections in Armenia have become existential. That is why, he and his allies must be deposed either by a popular uprising or by a coup d’état, because in all likelihood, he won’t be elected fairly and won’t leave power willingly.
The real map of Armenia is the one of the first Republic of 1918. The boundary of soviet Armenia were set from the
Kremlin and are totally unacceptable. The boundary of Armenia is present day Armenia plus Artsakh plus
Nakhijevan , Igdir Kars and Ardahan. And if Aliev wants to send 300 000 Azeri in Armenia first let the Armenians of
Artsakh go back in artsakh let the over 2000 000 Armenians go back to Baku. But unfortunately our present day government
of Armenia is a total disaster including that ignorant illiterate idiot Pashinian. Get rid of him before he gets rid of Armenia.
That Pashinian is so stupid that he does nt even think that Aliev is preparing for war against Armenia.
Pashinyan has used the rhetoric of the “Fourth Armenian Republic of Armenia” and “Real Armenia” ideology with a time zero concept to appease the Azeri dictator. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot used the concept that time zero began with the Khmer Rouge takeover in Cambodia in 1975 which is a similar concept of historic erasure. How did that turn out?