The top Armenian diplomat Ararat Mirzoyan says if anyone claims that Armenia's Prime Minister said that Armenia is leaving the Collective Security treaty Organization (CSTO), they are wrong.
The Prime Minister has not said we are leaving the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said during the Q&A session at the National Assembly.
News.am reports that according to Mirzoyan, Pashinyan meant that Armenia will not return to the union if it leaves it.
“The Prime Minister has said we will decide when to leave, but we’ll not return. No less, no more. If someone claims that the Armenian Prime Minister said that Armenia leaves the CSTO, then he is wrong, and it is very easy to prove,” Mirzoyan said.
“The meeting is being recorded, you can check who said what,” he noted.
On June 12, during government hour in parliament, PM Pashinyan answering question of the opposition MP why Armenia, expressing dissatisfaction with the CSTO, does not leave it, said, “We'll leave, are you scaring me with this? We're fine; we'll decide when we leave.”
“What do you think? What is the next step? Do you think we'll return? No, there is no other way. Don't worry, we won't return,” Pashinyan said.
He accused the former authorities of the country of joining “bubble union”, whose member have reportedly planned a war against Armenia with Azerbaijan.
The Moscow-led security bloc is made up of six countries: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
However, Pashinyan has accused the CSTO of failing to intervene after Armenia was attacked by neighboring Azerbaijan in 2022. He has also said Russian peacekeepers failed in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year, when Azerbaijan launched an offensive that sparked the mass exodus of its 100,000 ethnic Armenian residents.
As a result, Armenia had vowed it would “freeze” its membership of the alliance, recall its representatives and would not contribute financially to its budget. Moscow has insisted that Yerevan will be “obliged” to pay its dues regardless.
