Lake Sev

The lake is located to the east of Mets Ishkhanasar mountain at an altitude of 2,666 metres (8,747 feet) above sea level and has an area of about 2 square kilometres (0.77 square miles).[1] It is 1.6 kilometres (0.99 miles) long, 1.2 kilometres (0.75 miles) wide, and has a maximum depth of 7.5 metres (25 feet).[1] The water is cold and clear, and the lake is inhabited by Ishkhan salmonid fish.[1] The lake water is used for irrigation.[1] It is immediately adjacent to a smaller lake called Janlich or Jinli.

Lake Sev and the area immediately around it are a protected nature conservation area called the Lake Sev Nature Reserve, in the Syunik Province on the eastern slope of Mets Ishkhanasar. It was re-created in 2001 on the grounds of the protected area with the same name, created in 1987. It has a surface of 240 hectares. Furthermore, it aims to preserve the ecosystem of Lake Sev.[2]

Lake Sev and the surrounding area are currently the subject of a border crisis between Azerbaijan and Armenia. On 12 May 2021, Azerbaijani troops advanced some 3.5 kilometres into Armenian territory near the lake and occupied the nearby height of Mets Ishkhanasar.[3] Although the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan has never been formally delineated, Soviet-era maps all appear to show that most of Sev Lake is in Armenian territory, which would mean an attempt to surround it would be an infiltration.[4] Specifically, the 1975 map of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces numbered J-38-21 scaled 1:100 000 shows Lake Sev with its eastern, western and southern shores located in the territory of the Armenian SSR and only a section of the northern shore of the lake covering nearly 10% of the lake located in the Azerbaijani SSR.[5] The map also shows the adjacent smaller Lake Janlich (Jinli) as entirely in Armenian territory.[5][6]