CSTO meeting upsets Armenia
By Rashid Shirinov
The Armenian president's expectations from a meeting of Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held in Yerevan did not justify themselves as no country supported separatism targeting the territorial integrity of another sovereign state.
The participants in the meeting, namely the heads of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan once again voiced their support to resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the principles of territorial integrity of states.
After the meeting on October 14 President Serzh Sargsyan in his statement said that the session confirmed the necessity of the peace process over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, expressed support to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group on settlement of the problem based on the norms and principles of the international law, UN Charter, and Helsinki Final Act, in particular envisaging the territorial integrity of countries.
Armenian keeps under occupation 20 percent of Azerbaijan's international recognized territory and is unwilling to fulfill the UN four resolutions on unconditional withdrawal of troops from the territory of the sovereign country. This position in fact hampers the peace process, while over 1 million of Azerbaijan are still obliged to live a refugee life in their native lands.
This unconstructive position of the Armenian government over the settlement of the conflict, who ignores calls to resolve it through coherent negotiations, has led to a stalemate situation. Recent statements of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on impossibility of “settlement of the conflict today” and by Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov on Moscow's lacking optimism about the settlement of the conflict in near future” in fact clearly shows how difficult the situation is.
In this context, Russian president Vladimir Putn's statement over the conflicts with in the CIS was logical.
"CSTO was established to delimit external threats," stated President Vladimir Putin after the meeting. "We have to react somehow to what is going on near us, but we must spare no effort to solve all the problems we have inherited from the past by peaceful means and on the basis of compromises.”
The statement clearly gives to understand even in case if Azerbaijan starts liberation of its own lands, occupied by Armenia, the latter can expect no support from CSTO countries. The reason is that in this case Azerbaijan will not even attack Armenian borders, and this does not violate the agreements of the CSTO.
So, Armenia had to reconcile with its next failure -- this time at CSTO, while each stance like this in fact draws it back thus strengthening the international efforts directed at eliminating separatism and restoring justice based on the international law and legal acts.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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