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Former MP Armen Ashotyan, the deputy chair of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), expressed his disappointment over the statement adopted following the trilateral talks between the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders in Sochi late on Monday.

“The statement following the Sochi meeting is disappointing,” he wrote on Facebook. “Though some ideas about Nagorno-Karabakh's sovereignty were intensely circulating before the meeting, there is absolutely no mention of Nagorno-Karabakh in the statement.”

“Even the part [of the statement] referring to the mission of Russian peacekeepers makes no mention of Artsakh geographically. Instead, the phrase "the area of deployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent” is used.

“The Russian president hinted that some parts were removed from the initial text of the statement. Although it would be interesting to have a look at the preliminary version of the text, the fact remains that Azerbaijan has apparently managed to remove the reference to Nagorno-Karabakh from the text,” Ashotyan said.

He claims the reference to the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration in such a document is incomprehensible.

“We have repeatedly talked about this declaration and will address it again. We have repeatedly announced that we will support the settlement version that would not block the Artsakh people’s right to self-determination,” the politician underscored.