Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday that if Yerevan does not receive the responses to its inquires, Armenia will have to consider exiting the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Speaking to lawmakers in parliament, Pashinyan said that his government had asked the CSTO to clarify its sphere of responsibility vis-a-vis Armenia, given that its request for assistance after Azerbaijan’s invasion of Armenia in 2022 were not met, according to Yerevan’s assessment.
“We asked the CSTO a question and we have not received an answer yet. The absence of clarity on this issue, in our opinion, poses threats to the national security and territorial integrity of Armenia. The question is very simple: what is the CSTO’s area of responsibility in the Republic of Armenia?,” Pashinyan said, explaining that in May 2021 and September 2022 his government asked for CSTO intervention when Azerbaijani forces breached Armenia’s sovereign border.
Following the September 2022 incursion, the CSTO sent a mission to Armenia, led by Stanislav Zas, the group’s secretary-general at the time. Pashinyan said Thursday that an assessment following that and other visits has not yet been done. Yerevan has said that the CSTO, of which Armenia is a member, failed to properly identify Azerbaijan as the aggressor.
During an interview with France 24 last week, Pashinyan said that Armenia is “freezing” its participation in the CSTO, prompting the Kremlin to demand an explanation.
The prime minister told lawmakers that his statement means that Armenia has not had a permanent representative in the CSTO for a year, and has not participated in CSTO events and activities.
Pashinyan assured that Armenia is not blocking any initiative by the bloc, but it is also not participating, saying that the CSTO mandate calls for a consensus in decision-making.
He added that instead of fulfilling its security obligations to Armenia, the CSTO is creating security concerns for Armenia, saying the group “poses a threat to the national security of the Republic of Armenia.”
“It is very important to note that what we expected from the CSTO was never primarily about military intervention. Let us not wrongly assume that we attempted to drag the CSTO into a war and thereby place our partners in a difficult situation,” Pashinyan pointed out, saying that what Yerevan was anticipating was a “political position” from the group.
Pashinyan also emphasized the importance of this in terms of mediation. Armenia is also ready to accept the mediation of the countries that recognize these principles, but is not ready to accept the mediation of those who do not recognize them, because this will cause many problems.
“We never wanted to drag the CSTO into a military conflict. If the territorial integrity of a member state has been violated and aggression has taken place against that country, then that organization’s seriousness can be seen,” said Pashinyan.
“We didn’t say, ‘;come and solve the problem through military means.’ We asked the CSTO to provide a diplomatic and political assessment. We proposed that, in principle, that CSTO will use all political and diplomatic mechanisms to resolve the problem. There was no agreement on these two points,” Pashinyan elaborated.
The Russian foreign ministry on Wednesday rejected Yerevan’s assertion regarding the perceived inaction by the CSTO and criticized Armenia’s decision to deploy a “fake” European Union mission.
“I would like to recall that in September 2022, at the request of the Armenian side, an assessment mission of the organization’s secretariat and joint staff was promptly formed, which was dispatched to the border regions of the country. Based on the results, the CSTO Collective Security Council prepared a decision on deploying a [CSTO] monitoring mission in Armenia,” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday at a press briefing.
“We [Russia] nor the other CSTO members should be blamed that this balanced decision, which planned to provide the [Armenian] republic with technical and military assistance, as well as other elements, was rejected by the Armenian authorities under a baseless pretext,” Zakharova added.
“Instead, Yerevan overtly chose to invite fake monitors from the EU. The known facts speak for themselves and leave no doubt about the zero effectiveness of the work of those [EU] representatives. We proceed from the fact that the Republic of Armenia continues to remain a full member of the CSTO, with all the rights and obligations arising from this status,” the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson said.
“We hope that Yerevan will come to understand that existing concerns should be discussed and resolved through calm, confidential dialogue, rather than continuously—and dramatically — discussing them in public,” Zakharova said.
