Armenia`s second president accused the first in cynicism

ArmInfo. The office of the second president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan responded to the statement of the first RA President Levon Ter-Petrosyan that it is Kocharyan who  is guilty of driving Artsakh out of their format for negotiations on  the Karabakh conflict settlement.

The statement reads in part: "Today the ex-president Levon  Ter-Petrosyan has once again made an untrue statement in which he  accused the second president in the displacement of Artsakh from the  format of the negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh  conflict, Head of the Office of the second President Victor  Soghomonyan repeatedly. I addressed this issue and on the facts prove  that Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his political team were guilty of that  Artsakh was left out of the negotiation process. Historical facts  suggest that the representatives of the NKR have ceased to  participate in the negotiations for at least a year before the  election of President Robert Kocharian and the meeting of presidents  of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the negotiations were conducted  periodically since 1990 -. parallel to the Minsk process, Levon Ter-  Petrosyan held talks with Ayaz Mutalibov, Abulfaz Elchibey and Heydar  Aliyev Moreover, at the same time held intensive meetings between  representatives of the two presidents - Zhirayr Liparityanom and Vafa  Guluzade (in 1995-96 there were 11 such stretch). " As evidence of  this, the office cites the statement of Zhirayr Liparitian at the  London conference to the "Prospect of Transcaucasia", published in  the newspaper "Hayk" dated January 25, 1997 ("Hayk" was the official  organ of the "Armenian National Movement" party headed by  Ter-Petrosyan). "Armenia will no longer negotiate with Azerbaijan on  the Karabakh problem without the participation of Karabakh."  Liparitian also said that Armenia adopted this decision because, as  the OSCE Lisbon summit showed, Azerbaijan is trying to use bilateral  meetings to gradually force Karabakh out of the negotiation process.   According to him, at one time, Armenia met and accepted Azerbaijan's  proposal to hold bilateral negotiations in order to simplify the  process. "Ter-Petrosyan's cynicism literally goes off scale: he again  accuses the second president of being guilty himself," the statement  said.