ArmInfo.Belarus has three candidates for a CSTO secretary general's position, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said as he met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to Belarus Latif Gandilov on 12 November, BelTA reports.
Speaking about the candidates, the president said that the rotation follows the alphabetical order of the names of the CSTO member states, so Belarus comes after Armenia. "Right now I have three candidates for the CSTO secretary general's position," the head of state said.
The Belarusian leader did not understand why there were so many speculations and rumors about the appointment of the new secretary general because the foreign policy situation around the CSTO countries had been the main issue on the agenda. The decision on the appointment may be made at the forthcoming meeting in Saint Petersburg on 6 December.
To note, the post of CSTO Secretary General until November of this year was held by Yuri Khachaturov. On July 26 Special Investigation Service of Armenia charged Khachaturov with overthrowing a constitutional order in 2008. On July 28, the court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan released Khachaturov on a written undertaking not to leave the town after paying a deposit of 5 million drams ($ 10,000).
On November 2, by the decision of the CSTO Collective Security Council, Khachaturov was dismissed from the post of Secretary General of the organization. Early recall was initiated by the Armenian side.
After that, "Kommersant", citing its sources, reported that the CSTO was discussing the appointment of Head of the Security Council of Belarus Stanislav Zas as the Secretary General. This information has not been confirmed or refuted.
Meanwhile, on November 8 in Astana, the leaders of the CSTO were to elect a new secretary general of the organization, but the issue was moved to the agenda of the meeting of the heads of state on December 6 in St. Petersburg.
The Armenian side insists that the post of Secretary General should remain with Armenia, since this issue is not connected with this or that person, but with the statutory norms of the country rotation.