“Armenia refused to help Armenia”: how Pashinyan disrupted the work of the CSTO
Against the background of the threat of depriving Armenia of the right to vote in the CSTO due to non-payment of membership fees and subsequent expulsion from the organization, deputy of the Strong Armenia faction Edgar Ghazaryan, in an interview with journalists, gave a harsh assessment of the authorities’ policy, stating that Armenia found itself in an “incomprehensible situation” due to its own inconsistent and contradictory steps, the newspaper writes “A public Tribunal.”
According to him, the risk lies not only in the suspension of voting rights: the political weight of Armenia as the founding state of the organization is under threat, and the responsibility for the current situation, according to Ghazaryan, lies entirely with the authorities, who, as he claims, have been demonstrating “strange behavior” since 2018.
“Strange behavior” — starting with Khachaturov
Ghazaryan recalled that the “strange behavior” of the Armenian authorities towards the CSTO began back in 2018 with the arrest of the then secretary General of the organization, Colonel-General Yuri Khachaturov. According to him, Khachaturov was an official elected by the leaders of all CSTO member states and enjoyed diplomatic immunity, but the Armenian authorities, without informing the partners, arrested him. According to Ghazaryan, this was “a heavy blow to the authority of the CSTO and Armenia’s positioning in this organization.” (The deputy also stressed that in the future all the incomprehensible accusations against Khachaturov were not confirmed — ed.)
The next step, according to the deputy, was the blocking of the candidacy of the representative of Belarus Stanislav Zas for a period of about eight months, which deprived the organization of the opportunity to fully function. As a result, Zas was elected, and at the end of his mission Pashinyan personally awarded him a medal. “This is an obvious demarche towards the organization,” Ghazaryan stressed.
September 13 appeal and “satisfaction”
Ghazaryan also touched upon the events of September 13-14, 2022, when Armenia first applied to the CSTO for military assistance. He recalled that at that time Armenia was the presiding country in the CSTO, and the meeting of the Collective Security Council was chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. It is noteworthy that, according to Ghazaryan, in January of the same year, when Kazakhstan asked for help, Pashinyan “very effectively” organized the dispatch of CSTO troops. (It should be noted that later President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev presented Nikol Pashinyan with the highest state award of Kazakhstan — ed.)
After the appeal on September 13, the CSTO developed an assistance package consisting of three components: diplomatic support, military-technical assistance and an observation mission on the borders of Armenia. Ghazaryan recalled that during the voting all countries voted in favor of providing assistance to Armenia, except for one — Armenia itself.
“That is, Armenia voted against providing military assistance to Armenia,” Ghazaryan said, adding that after that Armenia refused to participate in the CSTO exercises, and then refused to hold them on its territory. He also recalled that following this, the Armenian authorities went to conduct exercises with NATO.
“The CSTO is also Armenia”
Commenting on the argument of the authorities that the CSTO does not recognize the borders of Armenia, Ghazaryan objected: “How should the CSTO recognize the borders of Armenia if Armenia itself should know where its border is?” He stressed that the preamble of the CSTO Charter concerns independent states acting in accordance with their declarations, so the issue of border recognition should begin from the clear position of Armenia itself.
Ghazaryan also recalled that the CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas, who arrived in Armenia on September 19, was not received by either the Prime Minister or the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and defense. Zasia was received only by the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the mayor of Jermuk.
When did the CSTO warning become a reality
It should be recalled that the “Public Tribunal” in one of its previous publications has already addressed the revelations of the former Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to the The Vatican of Mikael Minasyan, which significantly change the context of perception of the relationship between the CSTO and the Armenian authorities. According to Minasyan, 26 days before the start of the 44-day war, CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas sent a secret letter to the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan, enclosing a package of documents.
According to the former ambassador, this letter not only contained a warning about the upcoming military operations, but also described in detail their probable scenario. In particular, it was noted that secret agent networks have been operating in Armenia since 2019, the military balance has changed in favor of Azerbaijan, and that Armenia is losing on the information and diplomatic fronts. The document proposed to proactively seek support from the CSTO.
According to Minasyan, the scenario outlined in the letter was subsequently implemented “by 99 percent,” but the authorities did not respond properly. Prime Minister Pashinyan officially addressed the CSTO only at the end of the war — at the moment when hostilities were actually coming to an end.
This information significantly contradicts the authorities’ claims that the CSTO has not provided an adequate response to Armenia’s needs. On the contrary, it indicates that the warning was made, but ignored by the Armenian side, which implies responsibility for the subsequent consequences.
Summing up, it can be stated that the thesis that the CSTO did not provide assistance to Armenia does not have sufficient grounds. In fact, the organization has repeatedly come up with initiatives that were not implemented solely because of artificial obstacles created by the Armenian authorities.
