Maps made in 1936-37will be used for delimitation of the Azerbaijani-Georgian border

Baku / 19.10.20 / Turan: It was reported that officials, accused of facilitating the transfer of the country's territories to Azerbaijan were arrested in Georgia. It happened after the identification the map of Georgia, which was allegedly hidden in order to facilitate the rejection of part of the Georgian territory.

Topographic maps, based on which Tbilisi declares the need to revise the agreements with Baku, were obtained in Russia during a "special operation". Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Garibashvili told about this on October 16 on the Imedi TV channel.

On October 7, the Prosecutor General's Office of this country filed a lawsuit against former members of the state commission on border demarcation and delimitation Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilyicheva. They were arrested on the same day. They contributed to the transfer to Azerbaijan of the territory where part of the Keshikchi Dag (David Gareji) monastery is located.

It is alleged that they concealed an important state map of 1936-1937, based on which the commission could conduct negotiations on favorable terms for Georgia.

International experts, to whom the map seized from the officials was handed over for examination, studied and announced their opinion. Having examined the maps and documents related to the territory of Mount Keshikchi Dag, where the David-Gareji monastery is located, they concluded that a map of 1: 200,000 scale confirms Georgia's claims to the disputed territory of the monastery complex. Deputy Foreign Minister of Georgia Lasha Darsalia said this at a briefing.

"The experts' conclusions also note that this decision is the last bilateral agreement on the border between Azerbaijan and Georgia, which was ratified in 1996 and is the basic document for the demarcation of the Georgian border," Darsalia said.

Tbilisi blogger Berg… mann expressed that while Azerbaijan is waging a difficult war with Armenia, it is inappropriate to raise the topic of territory and monastery.

The work of the joint commission to clarify the Azerbaijani-Georgian border has been stopped during the war in Karabakh, and it is unlikely that the members of the commission will meet while military operations are underway. Nevertheless, Tbilisi hopes for an early resumption of work on the delimitation of the border with Azerbaijan, in order to put on the table new claims based on the 1936-37 map.

It is now believed at the government level in Georgia that the accused did not use the 1938 map during the compilation of maps for the work of the demarcation and delimitation commission. They forced the commission to use an incorrectly drawn 1970 map, because of which Georgia could lose 3.5 thousand hectares of territory in 13 plots agreed by the commission, including part of the territory of the David-Gareji monastery complex.

The length of a common state border of Georgia with Azerbaijan  is 440 kilometers, one third of which has not yet been delimited. — 0—