ArmInfo.Armenia did not refuse to deploy a mission of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on the border with Azerbaijan. Armenian Ambassador to Russia, former Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan said this in an interview with a TASS correspondent.
"You know that in interstate relations there may be some issues that are discussed and resolved. As for the CSTO observers, no one refused the CSTO observers. The document that was supposed to be signed in Yerevan following a visit to the region Secretary General and Head of the CSTO Joint Staff, was not signed due to the fact that the Armenian side wanted to finalize the document.<...> This document is in the process of being finalized," the agency quotes the ambassador's words.
Harutyunyan also denied statements by some Armenian political analysts and opposition figures that the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is preparing the country's withdrawal from the CSTO.
"Such approaches or opinions do not correspond to reality in the sense that relations between states are determined by the agreements that were signed, and these agreements, which were signed back in the 1990s, keep expanding. You know very well that there were dozens of meetings and telephone conversations between our leaders. Our Prime Minister noted that there can be no talk of withdrawing from the CSTO, so this is not true. On the contrary, we are deepening our relations, and in this unstable, let's say, period, our relations are deepening and will deepen "I want to repeat once again that Armenia is a member of the EAEU, a member of the CSTO, a member of the CIS and all other regional organizations where Russia is also present. Therefore, all this can be perceived as statements of people who do not understand our relationship," he added.