After November 9, 2020 undesirable developments for the government took place in Armenia, and in practice they demonstrated their tools to overcome them, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference in Yerevan, answering the question of whether in the future any government in Armenia could follow the path of Kazakhstan and put pressure on internal political protests within the country, and involve for this purpose CSTO forces.
“After November 9, when there were attacks on the government, the National Assembly, an attempt was made on the chairman of the National Assembly, the authorities did not shoot, there was no military operation. The roads were closed, but we did not take measures to open them. We have already shown our tools for solving domestic political problems, we went to extraordinary elections. Not a single shot was fired, despite the fact that in Armenia, as a result of the war, there was an unlimited number of weapons, including our opponents,” Pashinyan said, adding that the opponents did not use weapons either due to the fact that state structures were at their best. .
According to Pashinyan, the question arises: why didn’t the CSTO suppress the revolution in 2018? But then there was no violence in Armenia, not to mention the victims. “When we decided to send a peacekeeping mission to Kazakhstan, there were already street fights in the truest sense of the word, there were victims among law enforcement officers,” Pashinyan noted.
When asked if Armenia could not refuse to send peacekeeping troops to Kazakhstan, justifying this by the fact that some territories of Armenia were occupied by Azerbaijan, and in the absence of a response from the CSTO to Armenia’s statements, the Armenian Armed Forces should only be engaged in protecting the borders of Armenia, Pashinyan notes: “From the first day, our activities were aimed at eventually improving the CSTO crisis response mechanisms, it would be very strange for such a situation to be on the agenda, and Armenia would declare that it is against it.
Armenia could do whatever it wants, but we want the CSTO to be, of course, it is beneficial for us that the CSTO be an effective and functioning system, and that says it all. Almost on the same day when we decided to send troops to Kazakhstan within the framework of the CSTO, on the same day the Armenian MFA issued a statement, stating the protection of the rights of citizens to hold peaceful assemblies, we clearly stated that the CSTO forces cannot be involved in any -the internal political processes, the CSTO forces can only be engaged in the protection of objects of strategic importance.
The armed forces of Armenia were engaged in the protection of the bakery, and I don’t think that there is something bad in this - it in no way affects the domestic political situation,” Pashinyan said.
