Armenian pundit describes Azerbaijan as brotherly country for CSTO

Armenian political scientist David Karapetyan has described Azerbaijan as brotherly country for Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states.

"Frankly speaking, I was not surprised by such a statement. The CSTO has abdicated its responsibility to find out which zone it, as a military-political alliance, is obliged to defend. In this case, it was a retaliatory step by Armenia, in particular by Nikol Pashinyan, who asked the CSTO a clear question about the borders within which it recognizes Armenia," Karapetyan said in an interview with Armenian media, Caliber.Az reports.

"The CSTO gave a very diplomatic answer, from which we can conclude that the organization gives a clear indication that it will recognize defensible borders when Armenia has a mutually agreed border line with Azerbaijan. After this response, the Armenian government found itself in a very difficult situation, because in this case I don't know what they (Armenian authorities - ed.) should refer to in order not to put themselves in a ridiculous situation. We received a diplomatic and difficult answer. In this case, the current government should give a formulation if they want to continue this conversation with the CSTO.

This statement is also a green light for Azerbaijan because it is perfect for them as the CSTO has not actually said how it recognizes Armenia's borders, it has actually emphasized that it doesn't know what that border is. In this case the CSTO has put all the responsibility on the incumbent Armenian government.

As to whether we should expect assistance from the CSTO in the event of a likely military escalation, we will receive assistance from the CSTO if, under the legal regime, we present the correct wording. However, in this case, since there were a thousand and one reasons and there is a clear crisis in relations, no one can give an unambiguous answer to this question.

The president of Belarus gave a timely answer to this question, clearly saying that in any case Azerbaijan is their brotherly country, Ilham Aliyev is their brother, so they should work to ensure that they are not involved in these issues. In other words, in the case of Azerbaijan, this body has an exception: it will not work on its own. That is, no matter how much Armenia properly addresses this organization so that they can come and fulfill their mission in case of a crisis, especially in this crisis, I exclude the CSTO coming in and helping," the political analyst noted.