MFA: Karabakh conflict has nothing to do with CSTO

2 December 2019 17:39 (UTC+04:00)

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By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva has said that the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) of which Armenia is a member, has nothing to do with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Baku and Yerevan.

She was commenting on Pashinyan’s statement that CSTO must not sell weapons to Azerbaijan.

Abdullayeva stressed that Pashinyan’s statements voiced during the meeting of CSTO in Bishkek clearly demonstrated that he again resorts to deceitful militaristic rhetoric.

“In fact, it is Pashinyan who undermines negotiations on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with such rhetoric,” Abdullayeva emphasized.

She recalled that Pashinyan has severely damaged the negotiations process with his provocative statement made in occupied Khankendi back on August 5, where he said that “Nagorno-Karabakh is Armenia”. Pashinyan’s statement was received with international condemnation for undermining the negotiation process.

“If Pashinyan changed his opinion - he needs to declare this openly, and if not, and his position remained unchanged - this is a serious blow to the negotiation process, including the activities and the mandate of the chairpersons of the OSCE Minsk Group itself,” Abdullayeva noted.

Pointing to the latest Armenian provocation, Abdullayeva reminded the incident occurred along the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border on October 3, when Armenians killed an Azerbaijani excavator driver, wishing by such provocative actions to involve the CSTO into the conflict.

She further said there is close cooperation between the CSTO member states and Azerbaijan, including in the military-political and military-technical fields, and the cooperation that has developed between Russia and Azerbaijan.”

“As you know, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu on October 30, 2019, and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov on November 26, and issues of military cooperation between our countries for 2020 were discussed at both meetings. If necessary, Azerbaijan can purchase new weapons from Russia. We would like to emphasize that this issue has nothing to do with the competence of the Armenian PM,” she stated.

Abdullayeva noted the speech of President Aliyev at a meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of State in Ashgabat on October 11, where, with reference to specific documents and evidence, he pointed out to the glorification of fascism in Armenia and the erection of a monument to the Nazi collaborator Garegin Nzhdeh.

“Pashinyan’s ridiculous and absurd arguments were countered with great skill in the response by President Aliyev. Now, these clumsy rhetorical arguments of the Armenian PM have become the subject of mockery in Armenia itself,” Abdullayeva recalled.

She underlined that Pashinyan’s reference to the fact that the USSR People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov also met with Hitler, as well as his attempt to identify Garegin Nzhdeh with Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, are an example of historical illiteracy and cynicism.

It should be noted that CSTO is a military bloc of six countries: Armenia, Belarus, Khazakhstan, Kyrygzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. Article 4 of the Collective Security Treaty Organization says that the aggression against CSTO member states is considered by other participants as aggression against everyone.

However, in a possible war in Nagorno-Karabakh between Azerbaijan and Armenia, CSTO will not fight for latter, since all of the Organization's member countries, except for Armenia recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan.

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, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94