By the hand of our delegation, this state did not become a CSTO Parliamentary Assembly observer
As reported by “Aravot”, recently, an Armenian-Russian scandal has been matured at the Standing Committee session of the Political and International Relations of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The Russian delegates of the Assembly were trying their utmost to pass a resolution in the Committee which gives Pakistan a status of observing country in the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly. The Armenian delegates opposed to it. As a result of lasting disputes, the issue was resolved in favor of Armenia. In a conversation with “Aravot”, Khosrov Harutyunyan, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Political and International Affairs of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, confirmed our information.
Armenia, in the face of Khosrov Harutyunyan, chairs this Committee since 2013. Khosrov Harutyunyan is elected to run the second term in the position of the Chairman of this Committee for three years. Until now, Russia and Belarus were constantly presiding this important Committee of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly. “Let us not say that Russia has tried to but … to be honest, it is also necessary to consider very logical that the Russia including thru the CSTO channels is trying to expand its military and political influence. This is a very natural and logical. I do not see anything bizarre. And the Russian political leadership including the leadership of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, the then Speaker of the Russian State Duma, during different communications, were talking about giving this-or-that country parliament a status of an observer in the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly,” said our interlocutor.
This status enables basically to form opportunities for inter-parliamentary cooperation with the parliaments of the countries that being not a CSTO member country, however, can have a useful role to play in the enhancement of the level of collective security, and the elimination of external threats to the CSTO member states. This, so to speak, Institute is very positively assessed by Khosrov Harutyunyan. He says that driven from the aforementioned reasons, such status was granted to Serbia and Afghanistan over the past 2-3 years.
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The Armenian delegation approaches this institute with quite a responsibility for considering it quite useful and effective. It enables to develop not only the CSTO and given country’s parliamentary relations and but also bilaterally. In this context, very lately, the Serbian parliamentary delegation visited Armenia. “The process of granting a status of an observer is there, and this is normal. But the reality is that about a month ago, an information was submitted to me as chairman of the Standing Committee on Political Affairs and International Relations, that Pakistan’s Ambassador to Moscow had officially applied to Mr. Naryshkin, saying that they are not against receiving a status of an observer in the CSTO PA.
There was an opinion that a positive response should be given to Pakistan’s initiative. But we, the Armenian delegation, in this case, could not agree with the opinion of the Russian side. At the session of the Standing Committee of Political and International Affairs which had this item on the agenda, we cancelled this issue from the agenda by bringing arguments,” detailed Khosrov Harutyunyan, adding that the issue was preliminarily discussed with responsible officers of the RA Foreign Ministry and the head of the Armenian delegation to the CSTO, Eduard Sharmazanov, clarified the to-do’s in order to make a decision to grant a status of an observer to Pakistan. The decisions in the mentioned Committee of the CSTO and made by a consensus, and if any one of the delegations is “against”, the decision cannot be arrived at.
Firstly, a country can receive a status of an observer if the above-mentioned Committee has given a positive opinion. The substantiations of the Armenian side were as follows: “The institutions of an observer in the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly views the opportunity of forming such inter-parliamentary relations exclusively with such countries which not being a CSTO member are trying with their politics in the interstate relations to contribute to the enhancements of the collective security level or the reduction of external threats. Serbia and Afghanistan are granted this status of an observer by this principle.
This principle does not function in the case of Pakistan because Pakistan is one of the rare countries which openly has supported all Azerbaijan’s attempts to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in a military manner. Pakistan was the country after Turkey which openly supported Azerbaijan’s aggression during the events in April.” Khosrov Harutyunyan recalled also that a statement on Nagorno-Karabakh was passed at the summit of the leaders of the CSTO member states in Yerevan in October which was the first one throughout the entire existence of the CSTO. The statement spells out that all the attempts to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict thru the military manner will be assessed by the leaders of the CSTO member countries as an external threat to the security of the Collective. As a result, the issue of granting a status of an observer to Pakistan was canceled from the agenda of CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.
Khosrov Harutyunyan also added that the task of the Armenian delegation was to make Armenia’s position on this issue reach Pakistan, “And we reached our goal. The Pakistanis learned that the Armenian delegation is against their membership for very compelling reasons. Consequently, it is also against the policy that they are having in their relations with Azerbaijan. Now, everyone – Russian, Kazakh and Pakistani sides know our position, and it is possible that in the case of the successful use of parliamentary diplomacy, also to become a ground for paving the Armenia-Pakistan relations in the future.” Later, the Pakistani delegates were present in the plenary session of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly as personal guests of the President of the Assembly.
Note. There is no state by the name Armenia for the two Islamic states: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan has recognized the Azerbaijani fabrication “Khojaly genocide”, and in Pakistani school textbooks, Armenia is missing on the maps. A girls’ gymnasium named after Azerbaijani first lady Mehriban Aliyeva is operating in Pakistan.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
