Political scientist: Security guarantees from West will lead to  exactly opposite result for Armenia

ArmInfo.Armenia is actually freezing its relations with the CSTO. The famous Armenian  political scientist Beniamin Matevosyan stated in a conversation with an ArmInfo correspondent, commenting on the latest steps by Armenian government officials.

Earlier today, it became known that the Speaker of the National  Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Alen Simonyan, refused to  participate in the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of  the Collective Security Treaty Organization. A day earlier, RA  Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan announced that he would not attend  the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization's  countries.  Before him, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced  his decision not to participate in the meeting of the leaders of the  CSTO countries in Minsk. RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan and  Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan also refused to meet with  their partners.

Thus, as the political scientist emphasized, Yerevan is actually  boycotting the work of the CSTO statutory bodies. These actions, the  political scientist continued, are primarily messages addressed to  the Russian Federation and, in fact, mean a sharp turn of Yerevan's  geopolitical vector to the West.

Matevosyan did not rule out that in the future, not only the issue of  leaving the Organization, but also the withdrawal of the Russian  102nd military base from the territory of Armenia could be raised.

The political scientist drew attention to Yerevan's appeal to the  CSTO with a request to remove the issue of providing assistance to  Armenia from the Organization's agenda. He mentioned that this call  was made against the background of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's  statements about Azerbaijan's preparation for new aggression and  Baku's use of the term "Western Azerbaijan" in relation to Armenia.  "Against this background, they are refusing assistance from the CSTO,  including military-technical assistance, as well as from the observer  mission. If you understand that there could be a war, then why are  you refusing the existing "safety cushion"?", Matevosyan wondered.

In this vein, answering the question about possible guarantees from  the West in ensuring the security of Armenia, the political scientist  recalled the statement made in Yerevan by US Principal Deputy  Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs  Yuri  Kim that the issue of the security of the Karabakh Armenians for  Washington is "red line". "But we all witnessed how Baku committed  ethnic cleansing in Nagorno- Karabakh, turning 120 thousand Armenians  into refugees, while there was no reaction from the West. This is  already enough to draw appropriate conclusions," the political  scientist noted.

He expressed doubt about the West's ability to put pressure on  Azerbaijan. "This won't work," Matevosyan is sure, adding that  Western countries have their own interests in the region. As an  example, he cited the interests of the British Petroleum, which  invested over $35 billion in the oil resources of Azerbaijan. "There  is no doubt that all London's steps in the South Caucasus pursue only  one goal: by reconciling Armenia with Azerbaijan establish a  beachhead against Iran in order to seize its energy resources. Let's  also not forget that Iran is one of those rare countries that possess  hypersonic weapons. Can you imagine where we're going?

Accordingly, Security guarantees from the West will lead to exactly  the opposite result for Armenia," Matevosyan stated.

On November 21, the CSTO commented on Armenia's request to remove the  document on assistance to Yerevan from the organization's agenda. The  organization's statement in this regard, in particular, reads:  "In  accordance with the Action Plan for the implementation of  the  decisions of the November 20-22 session of the CSTO CSC and the   fulfilment of the priority areas of the Organization's activities,   two documents relevant to the stabilization of the situation in the   South Caucasus have been developed so far under the chairmanship of   the Republic of Belarus.  These are the draft decisions of the CSTO   CSC "On joint measures to assist the Republic of Armenia" and the  Declaration of the Foreign Ministers of the CSTO member states on   support for efforts to achieve peace in the region.  On the eve of  the forthcoming meetings of the CSTO statutory bodies  in Minsk, the  Armenian side proposed to withdraw the draft  Declaration from  consideration.  Work on the draft CSC Decision on  sending a  monitoring mission to the Republic of Armenia and other  practical  measures will continue."

Earlier, the CSTO proposed sending a monitoring mission to the   Armenian-Azerbaijani border to prevent escalation. At the regular   session of the heads of member states of the Organization chaired by   Armenia last fall, Yerevan did not sign the proposal, noting that the   CSTO member states did not give a political assessment of   Azerbaijan's aggression.