YEREVAN, DECEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. During the National Assembly-Government question-and-answer session, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the question of what Armenia expected from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and why he refused to sign the document on providing assistance to Armenia based on the results of the summit held in Yerevan.
“What was our expectation? To record the area of responsibility of the CSTO in Armenia, because this is a fundamental issue for building correct relations”, ARMENPRESS reports, Pashinyan said.
According to the Prime Minister, the second expectation was to give a clear political assessment of what happened. Pashinyan recalled the invasion of Azerbaijanis into Armenia in the Sotk-Khoznavar sector in May 2021, during which there were no combat operations. According to him, the opposition criticized him, saying that if the Armenian army is not fighting, why do you expect help from CSTO?
“Then came November, when the army fought, after that came September 13, the army fought again, and that accusation went away. We expect an assessment of what happened and, in this context, it is emphasized that there was a proposal of assistance and we refused any assistance. It is very important to clarify that there is a line to provide assistance to Armenia, including military-technical assistance. It is not clear what kind of assistance is being offered, and accepting that assistance without clear assessments will mean accepting the status quo established at our borders,” Pashinyan explained.
According to him, accepting a CSTO monitoring mission without a clear political assessment will mean accepting the status quo. He reminded that the results of the meeting in Prague confirmed that the parties recognize each other’s territorial integrity based on the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991. Only after that, it was possible to send an observation mission to Armenia, because the borders of Armenia were clear.
“With all this, have the security challenges around Armenia decreased? No, they have not decreased, maybe they have even increased, but our estimates are that if these documents were accepted as they are, the threats would not decrease, on the contrary, they would continue to increase”, Prime Minister Pashinyan concluded.
