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Armen Mirzoyan

CSTO Foreign Ministries Silent on Azerbaijani Military Incursions Into Armenia

To clarify the position of CSTO member states regarding Azerbaijani military incursions into Armenia, Hetq wrote to the foreign ministries of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan in November.

Armenia is a member of the military alliance, an outgrowth of the Collective Security Treaty, that is seen as Russia’s counterbalance to NATO.

One month later, only the Russian Foreign Ministry has responded, referring to a November 17 briefing by ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, during which she made several declarative statements.

 Zakharova said at the time that Moscow is in contact with Azerbaijan and Armenia, calling on the two countries to show restraint, and that work is underway to reduce tensions. There was no word about the territorial integrity of Armenia and the violation of the rights of a military ally.

On November 16, 2021, Azerbaijani armed forces launched an attack in the eastern direction of Armenia-Azerbaijan border and penetrated the sovereign territory of Armenia.

The Armenian Defense Ministry reported that six servicemen were killed, thirteen captured and eighteen went missing during the border clash.

Azerbaijan first deployed troops along the border in May 2021 and some units took up positions within Armenia. An unspecified number of Azerbaijani troops remain on Armenian soil. Baku claims that certain border areas are Azerbaijani territory.

In July, CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas described tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border as a "border incident" and thus does not fall under the provisions of the CSTO charter on collective defense.

On November 26, the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in Sochi and agreed to start a border delimitation process with Russian technical and advisory assistance.

Photo: RIA Novosti

Comments (1)

George
CSTO is like a JOKE! Since May parts of Armenian territories are under the occupation of Azeri forces and the killing and kidnapping of Armenian servicemen and villagers have become a routine. Despite all of the aggressive behavior of Azerbaijan, Stanislav Zas (Secretary-General of the CSTO) told the media earlier that CSTO’s capacity is used only in the event of an aggression, an invasion. "Here we actually have a border incident. Thank God, there are no casualties, no shooting there. This is a border incident, it must be dealt with, and we are in favor of resolving the issue by peaceful means," https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2021/07/03/Syunik-CSTO-Zas/2529954 I didn’t expect more from CSTO! Two of the members, namely Tajikistan and Belarus have a brotherly relationship with Azerbaijan. The Central Asia Turkic nations are the ones who lined up to congratulate Azerbaijan for its victory over Armenian Christians. And the most disgusting is the head of the organization that happens to be Armenia's so-called "guarantor of security", "strategic partner" and "military ally"! They betray Armenia (like always) because their main concern is not to harm their so-called "pragmatic relationship” with Turkey (quasi owner of Azerbaijan). This is the end of the mockery that Turkey as a party directly and explicitly involved in a genocidal war against the Armenian people is monitoring the so-called "ceasefire" in Artsakh. There is a Persian proverb in this regard: they asked the fox "who is your witness"? The fox replied "my tail"! Since 2015 the so-called “Eastern Superpower” has been too busy pleasing/appeasing Turkey in order to pull it away from NATO, bring it to their camp, and facilitate the first Slavic-Turkic alliance in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The "pragmatic relation" with Turkey even forced them to abandon their national pride and dignity. Russia stayed "pragmatic" (read passive) even when its military jet was shot down over Syria (2015), or when its ambassador to Turkey was assassinated in Ankara (2016), or when Turkish/Azeri forces shot down a military copter over Nakhichevan and murdered two Russian servicemen (2020). And despite all of these, Russia invited Turkey (the instigator of the war) to monitor the "ceasefire" in Artsakh. Disgusting politics, eh?

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