Sergey Naryshkin to visit Armenia on March 11

 Yerevan will host the meeting of the Council of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (PA CSTO) on March 11, Eduard Sharmazanov, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Spokesperson for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, told a news conference today, on March 9. 

He said Chairman of the CSTO PA Sergey Naryshkin will arrive in Armenia to attend the meeting.  Sharmazanov address the CSTO's stand on Karabakh saying that at the meeting, the Armenian side will raise the issue of the tensions in the conflict zone and the sabotage attempt Azerbaijan's armed force made overnight. 
"We will express our stand and I think our colleagues will reaffirm the stand of the CSTO member states on the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict and the inadmissibility of the military resolution,"  he said. Sharmazanov made a point of the fact that Russia and Belarus share Armenia's stand even during discussions behind the closed doors. 

At the same time, the vice speaker of the Armenian parliament said that at international platforms some CSTO countries often take stands that run contrary to the CSTO interests.  He said the given issue will be raised at the upcoming meeting in Yerevan along with others. Sharmazanov assured reporters that Armenia's CSTO membership meets its national interests and is justified. 

On December 21, after the conclusion of the session of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Moscow, President Serzh Sargsyan participated at the restricted and later at the enlarged sessions of the Supreme Council of the Eurasian Economic Union.  "Every time when the armed forces of Azerbaijan use guns, rocket mortars, or artillery against the Republic of Armenia, they are firing at Astana, Dushanbe, Bishkek, Moscow, and Minsk. I would like to remind that we have a corresponding article in our Charter, and if we don't implement that article, if we don't discuss the situation, if we don't view it as necessary to pick up the phone and make a call to learn what's going on in the allied Armenia and along with that vote against each other's interests in international organizations, adopt with third countries bilateral declarations the essence of which is aimed against the CSTO allies, we simply bring under that fire our entire Organization, its reputation, and significance.

Azerbaijan's policy is directed at the escalation of the conflict. Unfortunately, after the session in Dushanbe the situation has not improved but has acquired even more acute nature. The Azeri side does not confine itself with the use of heavy artillery, including that of Turkish production. For the first time since the establishment of a cease-fire regime in 1994, on December 8, 2015 the Azeri armed forces carried out tank shelling, which has raised the existing tension on a new, much more dangerous level. Taking into consideration precarious situation in the region, one should not rule out the possibility that Azerbaijan has taken this step by the tip or support from without," the president said addressing those present. 

Later, on February 12 2016, CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha said that CSTOis against escalation of tensions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the more so as heavy weapons are used.