Armenia expects the CSTO to accelerate the necessary political and diplomatic work with the Azerbaijani side to ensure the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia to their original positions as of May 11, 2021, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the CSTO summit today.
“Such position is important not only for restoring the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, but also for deterring Azerbaijan from further aggressive actions against our country. The fact that the risk of a new aggression by Azerbaijan against the territorial integrity of Armenia remains was reported by CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas at an extraordinary meeting of the Collective Security Council on October 28 this year,” PM Pashinyan said.
“Under these conditions, the lack of a clear political assessment of the situation and the failure to make the above decision may mean not only the CSTO’s refusal of allied obligations, but may also be interpreted by Azerbaijan as a green light from the CSTO for further aggression against Armenia,” he said.
“And this contradicts not only the letter, but also the spirit and meaning of the fundamental documents of the CSTO. Therefore, based on this, at the moment I believe that the draft “Declarations of the CSTO CSC and on joint measures to provide assistance to the Republic of Armenia” submitted for signing is not sufficiently finalized, and with all due respect, I am not ready to sign these documents in this form,” Nikol Pashinyan stated.
