Expert: Kazakhstan not to be involved in military actions in Karabakh as CSTO member
By Akbar Mammadov
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is outside the scope of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and therefore Kazakhstan will not be involved in military-political participation surrounding this conflict, chief research associate of the Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Kazakhstan Georgy Dubovtsev, told Armiya.az on April 13.
Commenting on Kazakhstan's support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, the military expert noted that Kazakhstan constantly supported Azerbaijan in the issue of restoring its territorial integrity.
"At the same time, our country constantly made it clear that it did not intend to take military-political participation in resolving the Karabakh conflict. This position has always been highly appreciated by the conflicting parties", he added.
The Kazakh expert also stated that Kazakhstan’s position is that in the event of aggravation of the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh zone, Azerbaijan, with which our country has close political and economic ties, not to mention the common Turkic roots of our peoples, may suffer one way or another, and Armenia, which is our partner according to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economics Union (EAEU), may also suffer.
"I believe that in the future Kazakh leadership will maintain a neutral position, not allowing steps that could be regarded as support for one of the parties to the conflict", he said.
According to the Kazakh analyst, in recent years, Kazakhstan has been striving to take the position of an unbiased arbiter and peacemaker.
"Therefore, with any new aggravation of the situation, the leadership of our country will call for a resolution of the conflict by peaceful, political, diplomatic and negotiation means", Dubovtsev added.
Commenting on whether being a member of the CSTO has a pressure on Kazakhstan's foreign policy, Dubovtsev noted that as the organization has no authority in the Karabakh conflict, the country has no intention to take military part to resolve the conflict:
"Our CSTO allies, including Armenia, have always correctly assessed this position and, as far as I know, have never made any attempts to “put pressure” on our leadership to change Kazakhstan’s foreign policy".
The Kazakh expert also commented on military, oil and gas or other contracts between Azerbaijan and other members of the CSTO.
"The signing and execution of a number of contracts between the CSTO member countries and Azerbaijan, in particular, on the supply of Russian and Belarusian weapons, as well as the growth of mutual trade and investment, can be cited as an example of our countries' interest in developing relations with the Azerbaijani side".
"As for the response to the unfriendly statements of some politicians, and even more so the unfriendly actions towards Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani leadership has enough political wisdom to use the entire arsenal of diplomatic means and levers to restore justice", he concluded.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance that was signed in 1992 by six post-Soviet states belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States - Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—signed the Collective Security Treaty.
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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97
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