On October 2, the Armenian Center for Democracy and Security organized a discussion on the topic “Risks of staying in the CSTO and risks and opportunities of leaving the CSTO” on the proposal of the initiative “Out of the CSTO.” In the opening speech, the vice-president of the For the Republic party Ruben Mehrabyan mentioned, “The rapid flow of events that we are experiencing today, Azerbaijan’s aggression against the sovereign territory of Armenia and Armenia’s transition to the ranks of countries that have a problem with territorial integrity, the CSTO and Russia’s reaction to all of this, subjects with whom we have a long-standing legal relationship, and the response we are witnessing.
Official Yerevan, even at the level of the prime minister, legally records all this to show that in fact, there is no CSTO. Against this background, the society’s reaction, the best evidence of which is the creation of public consolidation “Outside the CSTO,” has raised legitimate questions for society and the political class, including questions about the following: what will be the price of all this, what are the risks if should we stay in the CSTO, and what are the risks if we take steps to leave the CSTO?”
According to him, it is time to stop classifying opinions and ideas as anti-Russian, pro-Russian, or anti-Western, because such criteria no longer exist. There is only one criterion: any idea or step is derived from or contradicts the interests of the Armenian state.
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Lusine MARGARYAN
