Putin calls on countries of CSTO military bloc to support Armenian PM

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to lend their support to the Armenian Prime Minister and his team in the implementation of the truce in Karabakh.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization operates under the auspices of Russia. This regional international structure was created in 1992, immediately after the collapse of the USSR. Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan very soon left the ranks of the CSTO. And now its six members are Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

According to the truce, a trilateral agreement signed by Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, three regions adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh have already been returned to Azerbaijan, and units of the Armenian Armed Forces left these territories.

In Armenia, thousands of people and the opposition believe that Armenian PM Pashinyan signed the ‘practical voluntary surrender of land’ to Azerbaijan and demand his resignation.

“The leadership of Armenia, the chairman of the government were forced to make very difficult decisions, but necessary for the people of Armenia. I must say that these decisions, of course, are painful, but, I will stress again, they are necessary and required great personal courage from the prime minister.

“He took this responsibility upon himself. And our task is now to support both the prime minister and his team in order to establish a peaceful life, achieve the implementation of all decisions and help people who find themselves in difficult life situations,” Putin said.

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Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has called the role of the Russian president in stopping the bloodshed in Karabakh ‘exceptional’ and called Russian peacekeepers the guarantor of the preservation of peace and security in Nagorno-Karabakh.