President of Russia Vladimir Putin says Yerevan couldn’t engage the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh since Nagorno-Karabakh is not a territory of Armenia, but the republic wasn’t ‘abandoned and forgotten’, TASS reported.

Putin recalled that Armenia hasn’t recognized Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence, meaning those territories have formed and form a part of Azerbaijan from the perspective of international law.

“The Collective Security Treaty provides for mutual assistance in case of aggression against the territories of the member states. No country has encroached against the territory of Armenia, and this didn’t entitle the member states to be involved in the hostilities. However, I assure you that Armenia never felt abandoned and forgotten since Russia did everything it could to make sure this didn’t happen. Russia has fulfilled all of its obligations, for which Armenia’s leadership, including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has expressed gratitude several times,” Putin added.