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The Tatoyan Foundation Center for Law and Justice has discovered that in Google Maps and Google Earth applications, the names of locations of a number of communities in Armenia’s Syunik Province are referred to as Azerbaijani names of places and in the Azerbaijani language. The investigation was initiated after one of the residents of the town of Sisian sounded the alarm by notifying of these falsities to the foundation, it said in a statement on Thursday.

“Our investigation shows that schools, parks, squares and others have been renamed and given false or non-existent names. For example, the river Vorotan is indicated by the Azerbaijani name “Bazarçay,” the Sisian park is falsely named after former Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, another park is named after Ataturk, the location of the Syunik governorate is identified only in Azerbaijani language as "Zəngəzur Vilayəti Administrasısıyı", etc. They even tried to change the name of Sisian to Qarakilise,” the Tatoyan Foundation said, sharing photos.

“Obviously, these descriptions took place with the intervention of the Azerbaijani authorities. With such intervention, first of all, an attempt is made to subject the people of Armenia and especially the residents of specific communities to psychological stress. Further, by doing so, an attempt is made to present to the world false information, specifically that Syunik is Azerbaijani, an absolutely false thesis of the Azerbaijani authorities. Finally, an attempt is also made to legitimize the Azerbaijani attacks on and criminal invasion of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.

“A similar approach has taken place with falsely renaming locations in Meghri and Kapan by referring to them in Azerbaijani.

“The Tatoyan Foundation, in cooperation with the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region (ANCA-WR), is currently in contact with the Google company and is taking measures to correct the misinformation campaign. As a result of measures already taken, some of the fake names are now removed. If these steps do not result in corrections of all the misinformation, further measures will be taken with American Armenian lawyers to launch judicial proceedings with a demand to remove the Azerbaijani forgeries,” reads the statement.