YEREVAN. – The matter of replacing Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov should be considered in a broader context.

Acting Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan told about the above-said to reporters, after Thursday’s Cabinet session of the Government of Armenia. 

“We continue the discussions, the consultations in the sense that we need to consider the matter in a broader context because such situations may occur for various reasons, later on,” he said, “and the organization’s regulations should be ready for such situations.”

And asked whether it would have been more correct to recall Khachaturov first and then to bring charges against him, the acting FM responded as follows: “From the first steps, we, the Republic of Armenia, did so that our internal political matters don’t affect the organization.”

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.

On March 1 and 2, 2008, the then authorities of Armenia used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, and against the results of the then recent presidential election. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes. But no one had been brought to account for these deaths, to this day.