The CSTO meeting Friday was closed, but the partners publicized some information, and PM Nikol Pashinyan said—at Saturday’s congress of Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract Party—that he also wanted to publicize some information.
"All questions were clearly, transparently put before our partners. They also have their considerations. Yesterday's discussion turned out to be a very open, honest, simple discussion where we asked all our questions.
They tell us: ‘Look, Western, EU observers have come to Armenia. Who invited them?’ I said: ‘I invited, and I invited for a simple and a complicated reason. The complicated reason is that, despite the agreement and treaties, I have considered CSTO's reaction to Azerbaijan’s occupation [of Armenia territory] inappropriate.
Second, for a long time, Azerbaijan has been saying to Western countries, the EU that Armenia’s government and Prime Minister Pashinyan himself are bringing more and more Russian troops to Armenia, thereby creating a threat to Azerbaijan's sovereignty, independence, and security.
Our European partners tell us: ‘You seem to be a democratic country, you seem to have adopted a peace agenda. Why are you bringing in new Russian troops and creating a threat to the security of Azerbaijan?’ And I said: ‘If our arguments are not convincing for you, you form an observation mission, come, see what is happening on the ground,’" Pashinyan said.
The Armenian premier added that he spoke about this at Friday’s CSTO meeting.
"In fact, it turns out that the Russian troops, by standing on the border of Armenia, are creating a threat to the security of Azerbaijan?" Pashinyan asked.
He reflected also on the fact that one of the leaders of the CSTO announced that Azerbaijan is their close country.
"But sorry, it's not about emotions. Someone can like someone more or less, be closer. It's about the CSTO’s contractual obligations, it's about the law. Who likes whom and why has absolutely nothing to do with it. There is a created situation, now it is necessary to find out whether that situation is given a political assessment. The political assessment is that Azerbaijan carried out [military] aggression against Armenia and occupied Armenia’s territories.
Second, we need to adopt a roadmap on how we will restore Armenia's territorial integrity. The roadmap can be as follows: First, diplomatic work with Azerbaijan. And if that does not work, the CSTO must plan a force action to restore the territorial integrity of its member Armenia. We decided to give an instruction to the foreign ministers to resolve this matter," emphasized the premier of Armenia.
