Yerevan, Armenia (AP) – Armenia’s prime minister on Tuesday accused the Moscow-dominated security alliance of abandoning his country amid threats of renewed hostilities with neighboring Azerbaijan.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly criticized the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for failing to protect its member state, Armenia, amid its standoff with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russia has sought to maintain friendly relations with energetic Azerbaijan while maintaining strong ties with its ally Armenia, avoiding violent actions and striking a delicate diplomatic balancing act. It’s here. As Russia focuses its resources on war in Ukraine, the Kremlin’s influence in the region becomes more limited.
At a press conference, Pashinyan said that it is not Armenia that will leave the CSTO, on the contrary: “The CSTO will leave Armenia whether it wants to or not.”
“We are concerned about this,” Pashinyan said.
He emphasized that “the threat of escalation along Armenia’s border and in Nagorno-Karabakh is very high now,” noting “increasingly aggressive rhetoric from Azerbaijan.”
Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan soared in December when Azerbaijani protesters claiming to be environmental activists blocked the so-called Lachin corridor, the main road between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, leaving its 120,000 residents short of food and other basic supplies. Last month, the United Nations’ highest court ordered Azerbaijan to allow the resumption of free movement along the road, but the situation has remained tense.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. In 2020, Azerbaijani troops routed Armenian forces in six weeks of fighting that ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal allowing Azerbaijan to take a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh and reclaim nearby areas which had been in Armenian hands for nearly two decades.
During the latest standoff, Pashinyan and other Armenian officials strongly criticized Russia and the Moscow-dominated CSTO for the failure to ensure a free transit via the Lachin corridor. Armenia has expressed anger at Moscow, canceled military drills by CSTO members scheduled for this year, and refrained from appointing representatives as bloc leaders.
Pashinyan expressed Armenia’s concerns over the situation in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, citing recent protests by residents of Nagorno-Karabakh outside the headquarters of the Russian peacekeepers.
Amid growing tensions between Moscow and Yerevan, Armenian authorities have denied entry to Russian state-owned RT TV head Margarita Simonyan, media executive Aram Gabrelyanov, and Russian parliamentarian Konstantin his Zaturin. When asked about the move, Pashinyan said it showed disrespect for Armenia.
