Armenia in hysteria: CSTO becomes "pro-Azerbaijani" bloc
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
The state of hysteria for Armenia becomes chronic. The appointment of Stanislav Zas as Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has become a real concern for this small nation in the South Caucasus region. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko signed a draft decision of the Collective Security Council on December 21.
Zas has already visited Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Russia in order to coordinate his appointment, but the concerning milestone is that he is not planning to visit Armenia. The State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus voiced his readiness to arrive in Armenia at any time convenient for the Armenian Prime Minister and to meet with the head of the government, the foreign minister and the defense minister.
What is clear for now the decision has been made and any meeting with Pashinyan will hardly matter much.
Armenia has very sensitive approach to the issue. Following Pashinyan's failure on te issue of the Secretary General in Astana, many still believed that the Armenian PM would be firm on his ground and achieve the same decision in favor of the Armenian candidate. But now the Armenian media have begun talking about a conspiracy against Armenia.
The post of secretary general of the “pro-Azerbaijani” CSTO will be taken by a graduate of the Baku Higher All-Arms Command School, Stanislav Zas, an activist who supports the deepening of military-technical cooperation between Minsk and Baku. That's what annoys the Armenian society even more.
For many years, Armenians have demanded the cessation of modern weapons supplies to Azerbaijan, citing the fact that this contradicts allied relations between the CSTO countries. However, none of the CSTO member countries considers the so-called separatist regime in occupied Karabakh to be its ally.
Moreover, when Armenia joined the CSTO and the EEU, there was a clear condition for it. Armenia entered the organization without Nagorno-Karabakh. Therefore, the obligations of the CSTO countries to an unrecognized entity is a wet dream of Armenia. Besides, the fact that mainly the citizens of Armenia serve in the occupied Karabakh is a hard problem for Yerevan.
Some journalists in Yerevan consider that the actions of the CSTO are more and more openly responding to the interests of Azerbaijan, which is not a member state. They openly accuse Putin and Lukashenko of attempts to earn as much as possible on the desire of Azerbaijan to wipe Armenia and occupied Karabakh off the face of the earth.
In addition, Armenian journalists are hurt by the fact that Nikol Pashinyan, instead answering with dignity to Moscow, became more cautious and attentive to Russian interests and did not seem to notice hints of the U.S., ready to take "a step towards ".
In short, there are many reasons for anxiety and unpleasant unrest in Armenia. And in the coming months, they seem to grow.
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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
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