The Foreign Ministry said that the West is convincing Armenia to leave the CSTO

The US and EU countries are urging Armenia to withdraw from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan without taking into account the interests of Armenians in Karabakh. This was stated by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova during a briefing.

“According to incoming information, Washington and Brussels are convincing the Armenian leadership to withdraw from the CSTO, speed up cooperation with NATO, reorient military-technical cooperation and sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan without taking into account the rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians,” she said.

According to Zakharova, the West’s main goal is to “squeeze” Moscow out of the South Caucasus. She pointed to the “destructive fanaticism” with which the American authorities are “treating Yerevan.”

Zakharova added that the West “forgot about any of its own values ​​in the field of human rights.” She drew attention to the US silence about the beatings and arrests of demonstrators in Armenia. Zakharova noted that the West also prefers not to comment on threats against the Armenian opposition if the rallies continue.

In January, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reported, that Armenia will not hold CSTO exercises in 2023. According to him, the Armenian Ministry of Defense considered their holding inappropriate. At the same time, from September 11 to 20 in the country passed joint Armenian-American peacekeeping exercises Eagle Partner 2023.

In May, Pashinyan said that Armenia could leave the CSTO if the organization itself leaves the republic. Before this, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Mnatsakan Safaryan noted that the Security Council of the republic was discussing withdrawal from the CSTO, but now there is no talk of this.

On September 3, Pashinyan said that Russia was moving away from the South Caucasus, and Russian peacekeepers did not control the Lachin corridor. In the Kremlin didn’t agree with the words of the prime minister, emphasizing that the Russian Federation is “an integral part of this region” and then cannot leave it. On September 11, Pashinyan, explaining the ratification of the Rome Statute of the ICC, statedthat the CSTO “has not fulfilled and is not fulfilling its obligations to Armenia.”