Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Stanislav Zas, stated about the prospects for the establishment of peace in the South Caucasus—between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Zas stressed that there is a certain cautious optimism in this regard.
According to him, the situation has stabilized and the bloodshed has stopped in the region ever since the signing of the trilateral statement by the leaders of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan on November 9, 2020, and the entry of Russian peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).
"Of course, there [still] are hotbeds of tension—and they are on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. I was there, I saw with my own eyes what was happening. But, in fact, there is no border [there], as such. There is a line of contact, [military] bases, observation points. There are skirmishes from time to time. It should not be like that," Zas stated.
According to the CSTO chief, now the two parties have a major task: the delimitation and demarcation of their border, which is a huge and difficult work, but, nevertheless, it will enable to strengthen the security of the region.
"There is a cautious optimism that an entire era of war is coming to an end and another era is beginning. I can be wrong about optimism, but in any case, the steps that are being taken now to establish peace should be welcomed," Stanislav Zas added.
