All calls, appeals of Armenia to CSTO have no ground - Russian expert
All calls and appeals of Armenia to Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have no ground, and first of all legal ones, Director of the Center for the Study of New Turkey, Russian political expert Yuri Mavashev told Trend.
According to Mavashev, since the occupied Nagorno Karabakh and seven surrounding districts don’t fall under the mandate of CSTO, it’s necessary to consider this whole situation namely from such a viewpoint.
“I suppose it’s unlikely to expect any help from CSTO because otherwise, the whole organization would simply crumble like a house of cards. It is already a paper tiger. My colleagues - Russian experts even call it that, and I agree with this,” he said. “In this regard, Armenia can’t rely on help. I think that Russia made it clear that Armenia remains actually one on one with Azerbaijan. Everything else is an attempt to play around, sit on several chairs - something that Pashinyan does all the time, but this is something that won’t bring him any benefit.”
Everything that can bring result has long been stipulated in the ‘Kazan Formula’, and the Minsk Group has been engaged in this. These are well-known hackneyed facts, beyond which Armenia failed to offer anything better and smarter, at least from its side.
“If it proposes, then I think Azerbaijan can also consider this. As far as I understand, there have been no such proposals yet, there were only provocations. And provocations can be viewed only as provocations and an attempt to play around and drive the negotiation process to a dead end, which they have been doing all the time," added the expert.
Armenian Armed Forces launched a large-scale military attack on positions of the Azerbaijani army on the front line, using large-caliber weapons, mortars, and artillery on Sept. 27.
Azerbaijan responded with a counter-offensive along the entire front. As a result of retaliation, Azerbaijani troops liberated a number of territories previously occupied by Armenia, as well as take important, strategic heights under control.
The fighting continued into October 2020, in the early days of which Armenia has launched missile attacks on Azerbaijani cities of Ganja, Mingachevir, Khizi as well as Absheron district.
Following almost two weeks of intensive military confrontations, Armenia and Azerbaijan, with Russia's mediation, have agreed on a temporary ceasefire for humanitarian purposes, for exchange of prisoners of war as well as bodies of the dead.
Despite the ceasefire, the Armenian Armed Forces made a missile attack on civilians in the central part of Ganja city on October 17, as a result of which 13 people were killed, 52 people were injured, and a great number of civilian infrastructure facilities and vehicles were heavily damaged.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, the Armenian Armed Forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.