Kazakhstan General Newswire

Monday 10:10 AM MSK

 

AKTAU. Aug 13

 

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has addressed the situation surrounding the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) secretary general at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

 

"From all the issues, which should be discussed, this is the issue of the CSTO secretary general, which became a problem for us," Nazarbayev said.

 

"As to broader relations, as part of the CSTO, the EAEU, here there is a very large agenda, major programs, and there are some problematic issues, like those you have mentioned now," Putin said.

 

Armenian representative Yury Khachaturov now serves as CSTO secretary general.

 

Khachaturov was identified as a defendant as part of a criminal case opened by Armenian law enforcement in July.

 

The Armenian Special Investigation Service has indicted Khachaturov in a case dealing with the dispersal of a demonstration on March 1, 2008. Ten people were killed and over 250 injured when security forces dispersed thousands of protesters following a presidential election won by Serzh Sargsyan.

 

Khachaturov was serving as the head of the Yerevan garrison of the Armenian Armed Forces at the time.

 

He was appointed CSTO secretary general for three years in 2017.

 

On July 28 of this year, a court in Yerevan ruled to arrest Khachaturov on charges of violating the country's constitutional order in 2008 and granted him bail. The Special Investigation Service allowed Khachaturov to leave Armenia and go to Moscow to perform his duties as CSTO secretary general as long as he reports when necessary.

 

Armenia has suggested that CSTO member states start the procedure of replacing the secretary general.

 

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has also been arrested on charges of violating the constitutional order in 2008