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Escalation in southern Armenia is border incident, CSTO Charter provisions cannot be applied: CSTO secretary general
POLITICS
03.07.2021 | 13:44
The escalation of the situation in southern Armenia in connection with the setting of a new border with Azerbaijan is simply a border incident, and does nto call for applying the provisions of the CSTO Collective Defense Charter, CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas has said, TASS reported.
“It must be understood that the CSTO uses its potential only in case of aggression, attack on one of the member states. Here we are dealing with a border incident. Thank God, there are no casualties, no shootings. This is a border incident that must be resolved. We are in favor of resolving it peacefully,” he said.
He said no monitoring group has been set up, but the situation is under control, there is no escalation. “In principle, it is impossible to say now that the situation is getting worse. It does not complicate, it is already good. There is a lot of work ahead on the border issue to resolve those contentious issues. They need to be resolved at the negotiating table.”
The CSTO Secretary General also told reporters that the organization receives information on the border situation from many sources, including the Armenian side and Russian peacekeepers.
Since May 12, hundreds of Azerbaijani troops have invaded Armenia’s sovereign border areas, as a result of which armed incidents, shootings and clashes have been registered. The very next day of the provocation, Armenia applied to the CSTO in accordance with Article 2, Clause 2 of the organization charter, which stipulates that in the event of a threat to the security, territorial integrity, sovereignty or international peace and security of one or more member states, the other participants of the organization shall immediately activate the mechanism of joint consultations to coordinate their positions and take measures to eliminate the threat.
Armenia has also applied to the Russian Federation, which is considered a military ally, with which, according to bilateral agreements, the 102nd military base has an obligation to protect the Republic of Armenia from foreign aggression. However, Armenia did not get any support from either the CSTO or Moscow to eliminate the Azerbaijani aggression. Instead, the Kremlin offered Armenia to start a demarcation process with Azerbaijan. In addition, negotiations to establish a second Russian military base in Armenia is underway between Yerevan and Moscow.
