Expert: CSTO policy cannot change radically under Armenia's chairmanship

Lt. General Vagharshak Haroutiunyan, former minister of defense of Armenia is sure that the policy of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) cannot change radically under Armenia's chairmanship, though some emphases set by the members of the Organization may be changed certainly.  

Talking to reporters on February 15, Haroutiunyan said the new Secretary General of the CSTO - it will be a representative of Armenia - will not be able to have any serious impact on the CSTO's work either. "Yet, he will be able to influence the decision making during his chairmanship, which is good, of course," Haroutiunyan said. He refrained from comments on the information that he maybe appointed the new secretary general of the CSTO.   

As for the rumors that Armenia will be involved into the Russian-Turkish war through the 102nd Russian military base, Vagharshak Haroutiunyan said: "But for the deployment of that base in Armenia, Turkey's policy towards us would be more aggressive."  He is sure that the Armenian-Turkish relations cannot become worse than they are now. 
He addressed the latest initiative of the Russian lawmakers to cancel the Russian-Turkish Treaty of March 16 1921. "This may change the status of Nakhijevan, which will, in turn, have both negative and positive consequences," he said and recommended to wait for the decision of the Russian authorities.  

Members of Russia's State Duma Valery Rashkin and Sergei Obukhov (Communist Party faction) sent a letter to the country's leadership and the Foreign Ministry on February 8, 2016 proposing to denounce the Moscow Treaty of Friendship and Brotherhood signed on March 16, 1921, by the government of Soviet Russia (RSFSR) and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. "The Russian Foreign Ministry will study the State Duma members' offer to annul the 1921 treaty of friendship with Turkey", Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said.