During a conversation with www.aravot.am, we inquired of Khosrov Harutyunyan, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union of Armenia and a member of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) National Assembly group, how he treated the position of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on Azerbaijan’s subversive actions. We reminded Mr. Harutyunyan Stepan Safaryan’s remark that one might conclude from the CSTO’s attitude that “all this doesn’t smell like the Russian Federation is a military and political partner of the Republic of Armenia.” K. Harutyunyan responded, “Neither the CSTO, nor its summit, at the end of the day, nor Russia hasn’t viewed these subversive actions as irregular since 1994. And the fact that the response of the Russian Federation to what happened is given from the mouth of Lukashevich means that they don’t want to attach much importance to this incident. In reality, there have been much more complex situations, when artillery was used. Even American analysts say that large-scale operations are ruled out, since there is a phenomenon called CSTO.”
K. Harutyunyan comments on the notion that this incident may be perceived as a test of the CSTO in the following manner, “I am sorry, but the meaning of military and political cooperation is not responding to small-scale, petty actions, it is maintaining the stable and peaceful development of the whole region. If one responds to every petty action, the value and weight of his words will be largely devalued tomorrow. There can be no hint that our strategic partnership with Russia faces a challenge and cannot overcome that challenge.”
