LONDON — Armenia’s leader on Wednesday expressed frustration that the Russian-led security alliance had not come to his country’s aid in the face of what he called an invasion by Azerbaijan.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan questioned the effectiveness of the Six-State Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in remarks he made at the opening of the summit as Russian President Vladimir Putin watched.
Fighting escalated between Armenia and Azerbaijan in September, with both sides saying more than 200 soldiers were killed.
“It’s depressing that even Armenia’s membership in the CSTO has not deterred Azerbaijan from taking aggressive actions,” Pashinyan said at a meeting in the Armenian capital Yerevan.
“To date, no decision could be reached on the CSTO’s response to the Azerbaijan attack on Armenia. considers this to be the main failure of the Armenian CSTO chairman.”
Armenia requested assistance from the agency in September, but received only a promise to send observers. Pashinyan contrasted with the alliance’s swift decision to send troops to CSTO member Kazakhstan in January to help President Qasim Jomart Tokayev weather a wave of unrest.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have blamed each other for their worst flare-up since 2020, when more than 6,000 people died in a 44-day war in which Azerbaijan scored a major territorial victory.
The two countries have been fighting for decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, largely controlled by a majority Armenian, with Yerevan’s backing. There is
In his remarks, Putin acknowledged some unspecified “problems” facing the CSTO and said more efforts were needed to bring peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
That will only be possible if we can implement agreements on defining borders, unblocking transport and communication links, and solving humanitarian problems.
After the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia continues to play an important role in these efforts.
“No one wants to lock the signature of such a complex treaty to a specific date.
Russia has deployed about 2,000 peacekeepers under the 2020 ceasefire agreement, but so far there has been no resolution to outstanding issues involving the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh and the ethnic Armenians living there. can’t help
Azerbaijan receives support from Turkey and is not a member of the CSTO, which consists of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Armenia.
follow