The war could have been avoided, but the Armenian government did everything to make the war inevitable, Armenian second president Robert Kocharyan told Five TV channel.

"I am sure that the Armenian authorities have done everything to make the war inevitable. Everything was done. We can just go through the points. I will not say anything new, because I have followed the media for this one month," he said.

"Mutually exclusive statements created such a situation that even the co-chairs did not understand what the Armenian side wanted. And the impression was formed that the Armenian side is simply creating, coming up with various methods to lead the negotiation process to a dead end. And the war began at a time when almost no one doubted that the obstacles and disruption of the negotiation process were due to the Armenian side," Kocharyan added.

According to him, the Armenian authorities legitimized the Azerbaijani aggression against Karabakh.

"The legal basis for the existence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic - the Republic of Artsakh - is the application of the right of peoples to self-determination. Now, we have changed our statements, in fact, and brought the settlement of the issue to the plane of the territorial integrity of states. And this is the reason that the international community viewed this war and Azerbaijani aggression as the restoration of territorial integrity."

"The prime minister of Armenia is directly guilty in both issues," he added.

Asked whether the government deliberately went to this war, Kocharyan said: “I think that as long as this government remains in power, we will not know this truth."

"Different information sounds from different people... I have no proof of these facts, therefore I do not want to enter this sphere," the ex-president added.