Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has reignited tensions with a fresh wave of rhetorical attacks against Armenia, reviving expansionist claims under the guise of “scientific truth” and targeting one of Armenia’s most iconic landmarks — Lake Sevan, which he declared “does not exist,” calling it instead “Lake Goycha.”
Speaking at the 80th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s National Academy of Sciences in Baku, Aliyev urged the “return” of Azerbaijanis to what he described as their historical lands in modern-day Armenia, insisting that this should not “frighten the Armenian people or the state.”
“Azerbaijanis have never pursued separatism. On the contrary, our people have contributed to the statehood of the countries in which they live, and today Azerbaijanis do not cause problems in any country and will not cause problems for any state or people. Therefore, the return of Azerbaijanis to modern-day Armenia should not frighten the Armenian people or state,” Aliyev said.
Aliyev added that this return would be “not with tanks, but with cars,” stressing that government bodies, NGOs, and scholars should work toward this goal.
Context: Contradicting Armenia’s Peace Policy
Aliyev’s new statements stand in sharp contrast to Armenia’s peace policy and the efforts of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government to achieve lasting stability in the region. Yerevan has repeatedly emphasized — both before and after the August peace agreements reached in Washington — that Armenia does not seek the return of Armenians to their historical homes in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), focusing instead on securing peace, normalization, and the release of detainees.
Speaking in parliament on September 30, Pashinyan cautioned that even raising the issue of population returns could endanger the fragile peace process: “I consider it dangerous for the peace process, because conflicts, including the Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict, seem to have started with the raising of seemingly simple humanitarian issues and then escalated into the long-running conflict we all know.”
These diplomatic warnings come amid the devastating humanitarian consequences of Azerbaijan’s actions. Between December 2022 and September 2023, Azerbaijan imposed a nine-month blockade of the Lachin Corridor — Artsakh’s only humanitarian lifeline — defying an International Court of Justice order to keep it open and depriving the Armenian population of food, medicine, and essential supplies.
In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a final military assault on Artsakh, resulting in the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of over 100,000 indigenous Armenians from their ancestral homeland. In the days that followed, Azerbaijani authorities illegally arrested Artsakh’s top political and military leadership and transported them to Baku, where they remain detained under fabricated charges.
As of now, at least 23 confirmed Armenian prisoners of war and civilian detainees remain unlawfully imprisoned in Azerbaijan — including 16 captured during the September 2023 forced exodus — while independent reports continue to document the systematic destruction of Armenian cultural and religious heritage in territories under Azerbaijani control.
Historical Revisionism And “Scientific” Backing
In his speech, Aliyev instructed Azerbaijani scholars to intensify research, exhibitions, and publications aimed at “proving” Azerbaijan’s historical presence in Armenia.
“Scholars have already prepared many works on this topic, but there must be even more — scientific research, exhibitions, publications, historical maps,” Aliyev said.
He claimed that early 20th-century Russian imperial maps show that “almost all place names in the present territory of Armenia have Azerbaijani origins.”
“We didn’t create those maps; they were drawn by Tsarist Russia, which at the time resettled Armenians from Iran and Eastern Anatolia into Karabakh (Artsakh) to change the region’s ethnic composition. These maps must be studied and made public,” he stated.
Aliyev used these arguments to justify his claim that Lake Sevan — one of Armenia’s most sacred and historically significant landmarks — is actually “Lake Goycha,” part of what he calls Azerbaijan’s “historical lands.”
Historians have condemned these remarks as a continuation of Azerbaijan’s campaign of historical erasure and denial, noting that the very maps Aliyev cites contain no reference to Azerbaijanis as a distinct ethnic or political entity.
At the time, the Russian Empire’s administrative divisions included the Baku Governorate, Elizavetpol Governorate, and Yerevan Governorate — with Artsakh lying within Armenian-populated territories.
Expansionist Undertones Behind “Peaceful Return”
Aliyev portrayed the “return” of Azerbaijanis to Armenia as peaceful, but his broader message underscored territorial ambition masked as diplomacy.
“Our people have always lived in vast territories, and Azerbaijanis continue to live on both sides of our current borders,” he declared, calling for a “return by cars, not tanks.”
In the same speech, he described Azerbaijan’s 2020 war victory as “brilliant, complete, and absolute,” accusing Armenia and its diaspora of “distorting our history for years.”
“This propaganda continues. And we must confront it with our scientific truths,” Aliyev said, again instructing scholars to “increase scientific work that explores and glorifies Azerbaijan’s history.”
Analysts note that Aliyev’s blending of militaristic triumphalism with pseudo-academic “research” reflects an ongoing state-sponsored project to justify aggression, ethnic cleansing, and territorial expansion under a veil of “peaceful coexistence.”
Armenian Officials Respond To Aliyev’s Statements
Vice Speaker Ruben Rubinyan dismissed Aliyev’s claims that early 20th-century maps show Armenian toponyms as Azerbaijani, calling the narrative baseless and regressive. “If we go far enough back, we won’t see the name Sevan — it was Geghama or Gegharkunik Sea. And we won’t see Azerbaijan either. But there’s no point in going back at all — we must move forward. That is the meaning of the August 8 Declaration,” Rubinyan said.
Aliyev had claimed that “there is no Lake Sevan, but Lake Goycha,” and that Tsarist Russia “resettled Armenians from Iran and Eastern Anatolia to Karabakh to change the region’s ethnic composition.”
Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan, speaking to journalists, said Aliyev’s rhetoric targets a domestic audience rather than signaling diplomacy. “In his text, I saw nothing about liberating. On the contrary, he said: ‘We must return by cars’ — not tanks,” Simonyan noted, adding that “once you start historical quests, someone might end up finding their homeland in Altai.”
When asked about talk of a “return to Lake Sevan,” Simonyan replied: “So when we speak of the return of Karabakh residents to their homes, are we talking about tanks? Is it not normal for residents to return?”
Aliyev had declared that “there is no Lake Sevan, only Lake Goycha,” and that “the return of Azerbaijanis to their historic lands in present-day Armenia should not alarm the Armenian people,” since “they will come not with tanks but with cars.”
Conclusion
Aliyev’s latest rhetoric about Lake Sevan — or “Lake Goycha,” as he called it — extends far beyond semantics. It reflects a coordinated policy of historical distortion, territorial expansion, and ethnic cleansing, disguised as academic research and “peaceful coexistence.” By directing Azerbaijani institutions to manufacture and promote false historical narratives while his regime continues to hold Armenian prisoners, desecrate Armenian heritage, and erase Armenian presence from Artsakh, Aliyev is not rewriting history — he is attempting to erase it.
