Monday, November 12 2018 15:09

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.