“It’s not always that all member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization have expressed the positions that were driven by the CSTO official position and CSTO partner Republic of Armenia’s interests, however, the CSTO Foreign Ministers’ statement on July 4 protected the interests of Armenia and gave and counterattack to the Azerbaijan’s official position,” – said Vice Speaker of the National Assembly, Head of the RA NA delegation to the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, Eduard Sharmazanov, in an interview with Aravot.am, referring to the joint statement of the foreign ministers at the meeting held in the framework of Armenia’s chairmanship in the CSTO.
Recall that the statement, in particular, reads that the Foreign Ministers’ official stance is that the Karabakh conflict needs to be solved in a peaceful way based on the three known principles. The CSTO foreign ministers have stressed the right of peoples to self-determination. The statement was signed by all CSTO member countries, including Kazakhstan. Eduard Sharmazanov finds it typical that the CSTO foreign ministers reaffirm in Yerevan that the right to self-determination is inevitable. “Both the President of Armenia and we as representatives of the presidency of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly and I as a president have repeatedly stressed the importance that CSTO member countries should exclusively strive to defend each other’s position in the international platforms,” – said Eduard Sharmazanov and reminded that President Serzh Sargsyan noted at the recent meeting of the CSTO Council that CSTO member countries were not interested in what situation their ally country is.
Eduard Sharmazanov noted that the joint statement of the CSTO foreign ministers was thanks to the flexible and rigid policy of the President of the Republic. Our interlocutor drew an attention on another important paragraph of the statement, “It is specifically mentioned in the statement that the conflict should be solved by the co-chairmanship format. In other words, it is not news that both Turkey and Azerbaijan, why not also other Turkic-speaking countries, always wanted to increase the role of Turkey in this region by pushing him as a mediator in the Karabakh settlement process. This statement and the Russian Federation as a co-chairing country, both Kazakhstan and Belarus, which have good ties both with Azerbaijan and Turkey reconfirm that the conflict should be solved exclusively by the format of the chairmanship of the Minsk Group. Turkey has nothing to do here.”
The other important confirmation of the statement of the Head of the RA NA Armenian delegation to the CSTO is that the foreign ministers reaffirmed the necessity for the fulfillment of the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg, “This is a clear reaction to the Azerbaijani destructive statements that were made after the St. Petersburg’s statements when Azerbaijan made a step back and almost refused to introduce the investigation mechanisms which was enshrined by the Vienna Document. The Russia Federation as a co-chair country was the first to show its disagreement with this statement of official Baku and the introduction of trust-building mechanisms are primary.” He incidentally considers it typical that Kazakhstan and Belarus also support this posture.
“Both Russia and Kazakhstan, which previously were having a neutral posture, sometimes were even carrying out a pro-Azerbaijani policy, confirmed the principles that the Armenian side had defended. This can be considered a success. Maybe, we had not noticed it in the great political turmoil, but the statement of the CSTO Foreign Ministers was a counterattack to Azerbaijan’s official posture at least by three clauses,” summed up Eduard Sharmazanov.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
