Pashinyan Says Some CSTO Allies Closer With Azerbaijan Than With Armenia

Pashinyan Says Some CSTO Allies Closer With Azerbaijan Than With Armenia

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday that a number of countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) appear to have deeper relations with non-member-state Azerbaijan than with member-state Armenia

YEREVAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th January, 2023) Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday that a number of countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) appear to have deeper relations with non-member-state Azerbaijan than with member-state Armenia.

The Armenian prime minister was asked at a press conference in Yerevan if the CSTO could possibly deploy a multinational peacekeeping force to conflict-torn Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave within Azerbaijan which has unilaterally proclaimed independence from Baku.

"The CSTO multinational contingent is a theoretical idea. In fact, how neutral and objective are a number of CSTO countries in the situation with Nagorno-Karabakh? They are neither de jure neutral, as they are our allies, nor de facto neutral, as they have deeper economic and political relations with Azerbaijan than with Armenia," Pashinyan said.

He believes the deployment of a CSTO peacekeeping contingent to Nagorno-Karabakh would only make things worse.

The CSTO, established in 1992, unites Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

In 2020, Russia deployed peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh under a ceasefire deal it brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan after a 1.5-month armed conflict.

Since December 12, the only road which connects Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh but runs de jure through the Lachin district of Azerbaijan has been blocked by a group of people from Azerbaijan described by state media as environmental activists protesting alleged Armenian illegal mining in the area.

Pashinyan has urged the Russian peacekeepers to ensure that the blockade is lifted, saying that the failure to do so would be a violation of their obligations under the trilateral ceasefire deal. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has denied any breach of obligations by the peacekeepers.