“Now, I think that Azerbaijan’s aim in its actions near Lake Sev was to provoke a military conflict and, as the President of Azerbaijan had previously said, to create a corridor by force. There is a lot of talks that Armenia has done nothing, and it instead has appealed to the CSTO. It is the CSTO and CSTO allies that urged Armenia not to resort to military means to resolve the issue,” the acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during the questions and answers session of parliament-government in response to a question by Bright Armenia faction leader Edmon Marukyan about the stage in which the negotiations surrounding the Azerbaijani troops’ withdrawal are that illegally infiltrated Armenian territory.
He noted, “In this case, in the CSTO, Armenia does not act as a petitioner, but the CSTO is a tool to use in such situations. For example, they decided to unite and create an air condition, and when it is hot, they turn it on instead of saying that there will be a passing wind when the windows are open. Therefore, the fact that Armenia did not resort to a military solution also aims to not automatically involve the CSTO countries in a military solution. This is the reason why we say that we should solve the issue through political means. At the moment, the CSTO is not acting quickly enough, but we will consistently work in that direction.”
According to Nikol Pashinyan, the initial idea that Azerbaijan had is not considered neutral at the moment, and the CSTO countries must express themselves clearly in this regard. “The CSTO has not expressed a clear position that Azerbaijan should withdraw its troops. It is said at the working level, but not publicly.”
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Nikol Pashinyan also said that if the tools of the Armenian-Russian joint military group and the CSTO toolkit are not enough to solve the problem, it will not be ruled out that Armenia will consider appealing to the UN Security Council.
Luiza Sukiasyan
