Speaking to reporters before a court session, Armenia’s third president Serzh Sargsyan said that during his tenure, the Almaty Declaration had “zero importance” in the Karabakh negotiation process.
“Zero. Even the Azerbaijanis didn’t dare bring such an argument. If everything had already been decided back then, why was the Minsk Group created? Why did the three co-chairs announce five times how the process would proceed? If it was settled, why were both sides interested in continuing negotiations?” Sargsyan said, according to Panorama.am .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly stated that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue was resolved back in 1991 under the principles of the Almaty Declaration, which affirmed mutual recognition of territorial integrity among post-Soviet states.
Sargsyan’s comments challenge that view, emphasizing that during his years in office, neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan based negotiations on that document.
