Wednesday, March 20 2019 13:57

ArmInfo.In the CSTO, no decision can be made without the participation of Armenia, since according to the organization's charter; all issues are approved on a  consensus basis. Press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry  Anna Naghdalyan stated this on March 20 at a press conference in  Yerevan.

The representative of the Foreign Ministry once again reminded of the  important role that the CSTO plays for Armenia in terms of ensuring  security issues.

However, she stressed that discussions on the appointment of a new  Secretary General of the Organization are continuing, making it  difficult to name the specific dates for their completion.  "Discussions are continuing, including on filling in the omissions in  the legal framework regarding the regulation of the appointment  procedures and the resignation of the Secretary General. It is  difficult to say when the process will end," she said.

When asked whether Armenia received from the CSTO a document  regarding the approval of the Belarusian candidate Stanislav Zas for  the post of the Secretary General, which was announced today by the  Acting Secretary General Valery Semerikov, Naghdalyan noted that she  does not have information on this issue and she needs to clarify this  in the relevant department. But at the same time, she once again  emphasized that the Armenian side first of all focuses attention on  filling gaps in the legal framework, all other issues are secondary  and are derived from the first.

To note, in February of this year, "Kommersant", citing its sources,  said that the CSTO for the next year could be left without a  full-fledged general secretary, pointing out that the appointment of  the head of the Security Council of Belarus Stanislav Zas is delayed  "because of the uncompromising nature of the Armenian prime minister  Nikol Pashinyan, who hoped to approve his candidate. "

The publication also stated that the CSTO resigned to the fact that  because of the position of Armenia in the organization, there would  not be a full-fledged general secretary for another year, whose  duties will continue to be performed by the representative of the  Russian Federation Valery Semerikov. "We presume that until early  2020, the CSTO will be headed by the Acting Secretary General," said  an informed source of Kommersant at the Russian Foreign Ministry.  To  recall, the representative of Armenia, Yuri Khachaturov, who had  previously held the post of the CSTO Secretary General, was dismissed  from office, his deputy Valery Semerikov became acting member.   Armenian investigators charged Khachaturov with overthrowing the  constitutional order in a criminal case on dispersing protest actions  on March 1, 2008. The court released Khachaturov on bail. After that,  Armenia offered the CSTO countries to begin the process of replacing  the organization's secretary general.

After the scandal that broke out in the organization, Belarus  nominated Stanislav Zas for the post of the CSTO Secretary General.  At the end of last year, the heads of five of the six states that are  members of the bloc (the CSTO members are Armenia, Belarus,  Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan) approved candidature   of Zas after meeting him.

Meanwhile, official Yerevan has not yet noted the dates of a possible  meeting between Pashinyan and Zas