YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Senior Armenian officials have criticized the secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for saying that the Russian-led defense alliance must not intervene in a continuing military standoff on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.
Armenia appealed to the CSTO for help after Azerbaijani troops reportedly crossed several sections of the border and advanced a few kilometers into Armenian territory on May 12-14. It asked the alliance of six ex-Soviet states to invoke Article 2 of its founding treaty which requires the CSTO to discuss a collective response to grave security threats facing its member states.
The foreign ministers of Armenia, Russia, and four other CSTO member states discussed the border dispute when they met in Tajikistan later in May. They expressed concern over the tensions but did not issue joint statements in support of Armenia.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chided the bloc afterwards for not publicly siding with his country. He warned that the Armenian government could turn to the UN Security Council “if it turns out that the instruments of the CSTO or the treaty on the joint Russian-Armenian military contingent are not enough to resolve this problem.”
Yerevan has not taken such action despite Baku’s continuing refusal to withdraw Azerbaijani troops from the contested border sections.
CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas said on Saturday that the border standoff is not serious enough to require the CSTO’s military intervention.
“One has to understand that the CSTO’s potential is used only in the event of foreign aggression [against member states,]” Zas told journalists. “In this case we are dealing with a border incident. Thank God, there are no casualties, no gunshots. This is a border incident … and we are in favor of resolving it peacefully.”
Ruben Rubinyan, the chairman of the outgoing Armenian parliament’s committee on foreign relations, described Zas’s remarks as “weird.”
Rubinyan insisted that the Azerbaijani troop movements violated Armenia’s territorial integrity.
He also argued that one Armenian soldier was killed and six others captured by Azerbaijani troops in late May.
“The CSTO is obliged to react to not only a direct aggression or hostilities but also to threats to a CSTO member state’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and security,” Rubinyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Sunday. “I believe nobody can dispute the fact that the existing situation on our borders fully corresponds to Article 2.”
“We will continue to work with our CSTO partners in this direction and I think that representatives of our relevant agency will be in touch with our partners in the coming days,” he said.
Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, spoke with Zas by phone on Monday. Grigoryan was cited by his office as expressing concern over the Belarusian official’s comments and saying that the border standoff is not a mere “incident” because Azerbaijan is occupying Armenian territory in an attempt to annex it.
Grigoryan also told Zas that the CSTO Secretariat in Moscow should send a fact-finding mission to Armenia that would look into the situation on the ground.
Lieutenant-General Artak Davtyan, the chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff, said on June 22 that Russia will likely deploy border guards in Gegharkunik, one of the two Armenian provinces where Azerbaijani forces took up new positions nearly two months ago. Russian officials have not commented on that so far.
It is also not clear whether Russian military personnel could also be dispatched to a disputed border section in the other affected province, Syunik. Moscow already deployed soldiers and border guards elsewhere in Syunik following the Armenian-Azerbaijani war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire in November.
When will the Armenian government wake up from their pitiful dream? CSTO will never take the side of Armenia against a Turkic azerbaijan. Once globally Armenians wake up and understand that we have NO FRIENDS maybe then a true global campaign can start to plan for our future.
The reality is azerbaijan has resources to offer along with billions they have stolen from their people, what does Armenia have to offer?
Since dawn of our earliest human civilizations might has always been right, the only language we should speak is language of power that is generated by money not poems and patriotic songs
I have written before that Armenia needs about $5 Billion a year to survive and BUY advanced weapons year after year, not beg for second hand units from Russia.
We must dig deep as Armenians of the diaspora and like a Swiss watch individually donate $10 a week to a fund that is totally out of the control of our incapable diaspora political parties who seem not able to put aside their differences even when the enemy is invading our lands yet again.
Create a fund that sits in France, managed by a board of NON ARMENIAN trustees and a board of directors represented by selected Armenian representatives and that adheres to a constitution drawn up to provide security , finance & aid to Armenia. We saw the failure of the all last fund even when our young soldiers were dying by the dozens a day.
Very well said, I agree with you Serop, I hope one day all the suggestions you made, will be realized.