In a bold move that reflects growing discontent over Russia’s lack of support, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has raised the possibility of his country withdrawing from the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Monday that his country could withdraw from Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in a new show of discontent over the lack of support from its ally Russia.
Yerevan has grown increasingly frustrated over Russia’s failure to protect Armenia in the face of military threats from Azerbaijan.
Pashinyan’s remarks came ahead of the talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to be hosted by the Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday in Moscow.
Locked in a decades-long territorial conflict, the Caucasus neighbors have sought to negotiate a peace agreement with the help of the European Union and the United States.
The West’s diplomatic engagement in the Caucasus has irked traditional regional power broker Russia.
“We began discussing security issues with our Western partners because we see that the security system in the region is not working,” Pashinyan said on Monday.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars, in 2020 and the 1990s, for control of Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Six weeks of hostilities in autumn 2020 ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Armenia cede swathes of territory it had controlled for decades.
Armenia, which has relied upon Russia for military and economic support since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has accused Moscow of failing to fulfill its peacekeeping role in Karabakh.
With Russia bogged down in Ukraine and unwilling to strain ties with Azerbaijan’s key ally Turkey, the United States and European Union have sought to repair relations between the Caucasus rivals.
Mirosalava Salazar with AFP
