YEREVAN. – There is currently nothing new about the matter of replacing Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov.

Anna Naghdalyan, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Armenia, said the aforementioned at Wednesday’s press briefing.

“The [respective] discussions are continuing,” she noted. “They are aimed at reaching a decision by consensus.”

Naghdalyan recalled that the current procedure does not foresee a replacing of the CSTO Secretary General, and therefore such a procedure needs to be developed.

Incumbent CSTO Secretary General and Armenia’s former Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Khachaturov has been charged in Armenia within the framework of the criminal case into the tragic events that transpired in capital city Yerevan on March 1 and 2, 2008—and under Article 300.1 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code; that is, breaching Armenia’s constitutional order, in conspiracy with others. On July 27, however, Khachaturov was released on bail; and on August 4, he returned to Moscow to his duties as CSTO Secretary General.

As for the moving of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly from Yerevan to Moscow, the MFA spokesperson stressed that this was solely a technical decision.