Robert Kocharyan, the first member of the “Armenia” alliance, referred to the issue of leaving Artsakh out of the talks.

“I have been the President of Armenia since 1998. There has been no negotiation process since the Lisbon Summit in December 1996. In fact, the whole year of 1997, until April 1998 (I was elected President of the Republic of Armenia in February 1998, but I came to the office in April). Before that, intensive negotiations have taken place for about 1.5 years between the Advisor to the President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev Vafa Guluzade and Zhirayr Liparityan, Advisor to the First President of Armenia. Intensive negotiations without Karabakh,” Kocharyan noted.

Kocharyan said that he was the president of Karabakh when Zhirayr Liparityan would come and half-heartedly tell about what had happened. Or he would talk to the ex-Foreign Minister of Karabakh Arkadi Ghukasyan.

“But Karabakh did not take part in those talks. In January 1997, when Zhirayr Liparityan left the office, he gave a press conference and announced that they started this process with Vafa Guluzade, thinking that they would help speed up the process, but the opposite happened. This is a proven truth․ The one who started and continued this process without Karabakh admitted his mistake. Now, after all this, with what conscience do people say that I left Karabakh out of the negotiations? If needed, we can publish those facts once again,” Robert Kocharyan said.