Pashinyan, in his Army Day message, again accuses CSTO

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in his congratulatory message on the occasion of Armenian Army Day, once again leveled accusations against the CSTO.

In particular, he stated that for many years Armenia’s presence in the CSTO prevented it from purchasing weapons from other partners, while the CSTO itself failed to fulfill its obligations to guarantee the security of its ally and to deliver weapons under already concluded deals.

“Almost all of our international partners, potentially capable of selling weapons and equipment, politely refused to sell arms to the Republic of Armenia for two main reasons:

1. They were not confident that these weapons would remain within the internationally recognized territory of the Republic of Armenia.
2. They were not confident that the classified specifications of these weapons would not become accessible to the CSTO, whose membership itself was an obstacle to concluding such deals.

And the CSTO partners, as of September 2022, refused to fulfill their contractual obligations to us regarding the guarantee of the security and territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia. They also refused to supply weapons and equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars, for which Armenia had already made payment.

This posed an existential threat to the Republic of Armenia, and it was obvious that a decision had been made to destroy our statehood and annul our sovereignty. This mortal danger was overcome as a result of two decisive events: the political agreement reached in Prague on October 6, 2022, in a quadrilateral format, according to which the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty on the basis of the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, and the freezing of Armenia’s membership in the CSTO. We will consistently continue this strategy,” Pashinyan said in his message.