Armenia Adamant to Leave Russia’s CSTO After Karabakh Loss
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Roshan Amiri
- . December 23, 2023
- . Update: December 23, 2023 1:47 pm
With Armenia not having attended the CSTO summit last month and last week’s Parliamentary Assembly of CSTO, speculations are high that Yerevan is leaving the Russian-led military alliance for good.
President of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan said the Collective Security Treaty Organization did not even give a political assessment when Armenia’s sovereign territory was invaded by Azerbaijan’s armed forces in September.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuked the Armenian government. “It’s not we who abandoned Karabakh. It’s Armenia that recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. They did so purposefully and did not quite inform us that they are about to make such a decision.
Russia-Armenia Military Contract
In regards to CSTO, Russia admitted that there have been issues in fulfilling certain aspects of military contract with Armenia. Sergey Kopyrkin, Russia’s Ambassador to Armenia, said military-technical cooperation between the two countries has a long tradition.
“It’s based on the agreement on military-technical cooperation between Russia and Armenia signed on June 25, 2013. Nearly all signed contracts are either completed on time and high quality, or are in the final phase of fulfillment. In terms of certain individual contracts there are indeed issues related to the obligations on fulfilling the state order by Russian enterprises in the defense sector. However, these are working issues that are resolved during dialogue between respective government agencies of Russia and Armenia.”
The ambassador brushed of Russia-Armenia’s deteriorating relations saying the Kremlin and Yerevan remain partners and strategic allies, united by common interests, a common history and similar views on international problem. Kopyrkin said the alliance corresponds to the fundamental interests of both countries. He added that there are certain differences in their bilateral and multilateral agenda. “Both the Russian and Armenian sides are ready to discuss any contentious topics frankly and in a constructive atmosphere, as befits allies.”
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Armenia Disgruntled by Russia
But relations are far than cordial between the two countries. Armenia blames Russia for Azerbaijan’s September offensive and has reduced its participation in CSTO. It has snubbed the Russian bloc’s meetings at every level and turned towards the EU for intensive cooperation. Armenia and EU jointly deployed a civilian monitoring mission to the Azerbaijan border. However, this drew criticism from Russia saying it confronts the Kremlin geopolitically in the South Caucasus region.
Areg Kochinyan, head of the Research Center on Security Policy in Yerevan, believes Armenia could withdraw from the CSTO after approving a national security strategy that stipulates non-bloc status for the country. He highlighted that a new national security strategy is being drafted, and its unknown whether it will contain such a provision.
