With all due respect to the esteemed President of the Russian Federation (we are partners and work together), this statement makes obvious the general situation that exists in the CSTO. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this during the Parliament-Government question-and-answer session, referring to the statement of Davit Karapetyan, Deputy of the ‘Civil Contract’ faction, that Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the CSTO could not have fought in Nagorno-Karabakh, and there was no attack on the Republic of Armenia. Besides, he stated that the Republic of Armenia supports all documents adopted in the CSTO format.
Pashinyan reminded that in 2021, 2022 there were territorial encroachments, aggression against the Republic of Armenia, the issue was discussed with the allies, and the Armenian side received an answer that such a thing cannot happen, because the borders of the Republic of Armenia are a red line for us, but the border is not delimited.
“We said OK; show us the CSTO zone of responsibility in Armenia. Here is the map, here is the pencil, show where it passes. They did not show it to us. And I publicly expressed my reaction: if the CSTO does not have a zone of responsibility in Armenia, it cannot show that line, then the CSTO as an organization does not exist. And that was the reason why I refused to sign the final document of the CSTO summit at the Yerevan summit in the fall of 2022. The situation with Karabakh has nothing to do with it. We did not touch on the Karabakh issue at all in the context of freezing our participation in the CSTO,” he said.
Referring to the statement on the signing of the documents, Pashinyan reminded that the Republic of Armenia announced that its participation in the CSTO is being frozen, which means that the Armenian side does not participate in the processes of developing, discussing, or making proposals for any document.
“We simply do not veto any document, because, in fact, we already consider ourselves outside the CSTO, and let them decide what they want. We do not interfere in their affairs, let's say, oh, de jure we have the right to veto here. And that is with respect to our partners.
However, I say again, including these differences in situations and their public mutual expression, it is increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for Armenia to return to the CSTO. And I think that there we have essentially crossed the point of no return."
