The shores of Lake Garaghel may have changed over the decades, and determining the boundary on an old map would lead to an error

Baku/17.05.21/Turan: The territory occupied by mountain lakes, the volume of reservoirs, the shorelines may change over time, due to climatic conditions. This may happen with different intensities, at the same time, the lakes may also remain unchanged. Therefore, specialists cannot use maps from the 1970s to determine today's national boundaries. In order to correlate old maps with today's geographical reality, the work of specialists in the field is needed," said Ziyaddin Agayev, Ph.D., a leading researcher at the Land Hydrology Department of the Institute of Geography at the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, to Turan.

The scientist was asked about this question in connection with the border crisis between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the area of Lake Garaghel (Siv Leach). As is known, Armenia insists that about 75% of this lake belongs to it, because according to Soviet maps the administrative border between the Azerbaijan SSR and the Armenian SSR runs in this way, dividing the lake in proportion 75-25. This division corresponds to the Soviet maps of the 1970s published by the USSR Ministry of Defence.

Ziyaddin Agayev believes that the boundaries of the lake may change over 50 years. In particular, the eastern shore of the lake may have changed, and the western shore may have remained unchanged, or otherwise. As a result, navigating on an old map today can be misleading.

To clarify this, on-site research by Azerbaijani geographers, cartographers and other specialists is needed to determine the dynamics of changes in the shores of the reservoir. They need data on the depth, slope, and bottom of the reservoir. Once this has been established, the experts will be able to establish whether the geography of the lake matches the indications on the map that define the boundary.

"To this day Azerbaijani specialists have no access to this region and cannot say for sure about the condition of the shoreline of Lake Garaghel and compliance of the lake's geography with the state border," said Ziyaddin Agayev. -0-