Monday, May 27 2019 14:01

ArmInfo.There was no major crisis on the issue of appointing a new CSTO Secretary General in the Organization; rather there were different approaches to interpreting  the same provision of the Charter, in particular, the regulations on  changing the Secretary General. The Ambassador of Kazakhstan to  Armenia Timur Urazaev said this on May 27 at a press conference in  Yerevan, answering the corresponding question of journalists.

"As for your question as to what may be considered May 22 as the date  of the end of this crisis, I would like to say that there was no  crisis for Kazakhstan as such, because the candidate was not from us  and we just expressed our opinion. And on May 22, as far as I know,  the Armenian side stated that the issue was resolved and it was  possible to move on. We believed that it was possible not to stop,  and moved both until May 22, and move further after 22, "the  Ambassador said noting that the CSTO secretariat did not stop working  from this.

Speaking about further actions, Urazaev stressed that he would follow  the actions and statements of the Armenian side. He once again  stressed that for the Kazakh side there were no problems in this  matter.  "There were heated discussions both in the media and among  the public, but it's rather a glance through the focus of former  intra-Armenian events. I cannot belittle the Armenian public's view,  but in Kazakhstan's society they looked at this question from a  different angle," the ambassador concluded.

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 included  in the bloc (the CSTO members are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,  Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan) approved candidature of Zas after  meeting him.

On May 22, following the meeting of the CSTO Ministerial Council in  Bishkek, the Armenian side declared its readiness to discuss the  candidacy of the CSTO Secretary General.

Also according to ArmInfo sources, Stanislav Zas must arrive in  Yerevan today to meet with the leadership of Armenia.