Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan commented on the opinions of well-known diplomats, including former Armenian FMs, that the Almaty Declaration of 1991 cannot be a basis for border delimitation with Azerbaijan, but is only a confirmation of the absence of territorial ambitions of the former Soviet republics.

Answering that question at Monday’s joint news conference with the visiting OSCE Chairman-in-Office in Yerevan, the Armenian FM started to note the positive responses from various countries and organizations.

Going to the essence of the matter, Mirzoyan stated that he makes efforts not to get involved in internal political processes and debates, but being a member of a political team, and trying not to cross the boundaries of correctness, he can't help but make two observations.

"The experienced diplomats you mentioned are the defectors who left their posts, their ‘trenches’ in the days when [Azerbaijani] military aggression took place, or was carried out, on the sovereign territory of Armenia. I can't have a single drop of seriousness towards these people and their positions after the fact of this issue. This is the mildest assessment. By targeting the Almaty Declaration and the peace process based on it, these people, I cannot say whether they are intentional or not, are targeting Armenia's sovereignty and territorial integrity. In the best case, not on purpose, in the worst case, at the behest of other countries," Mirzoyan added.