Andranik Kocharyan addresses CSTO inaction and 44-day war casualties

ArmInfo.Armenia has requested assistance from the CSTO two or three times, but the organization failed to provide anything beyond verbal assurances, as stated by Andranik Kocharyan, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security, to journalists on April 6.

According to him, the CSTO had statutory obligations to provide  Armenia with the necessary assistance, but this did not happen. At  the same time, Kocharyan did not rule out the possibility of  withdrawing from the organization at some point.

Regarding the fallen soldiers, the head of the Committee mentioned  that the current figure stands at 3,970, although the second and  third presidents spoke of 5,000 dead, adding over 1,000 people. He  expressed doubt about the figures cited by the former presidents. At  the same time, as the deputy noted, the relatives of some identified  deceased servicemen still have not collected their remains from  morgues, despite the fact that the identities of the deceased have  been confirmed through DNA testing. However, the families refuse to  accept the remains. 

"The Investigative Committee has conducted  extensive work, which has  become the basis for the search operations. In particular, the legal  successors were shown the exact locations where their loved ones fell  or went missing," Kocharyan noted, expressing dissatisfaction with  the absence of relatives at meetings of the National Assembly  Committee investigating the circumstances of the 44-day war in  Nagorno-Karabakh.