Turan Information Agency, Azerbaijani Opposition Press
 Monday


What could be expected in response to the praise of the CSTO?

Analytical Service Turan


In mid-August, Chairman of the Committee on Legal Policy and State
Building of the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan, Ali Huseynli, spoke about
the advantages of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
of the CIS. The public regarded the opinion of A. Huseynli as "the
first step of Azerbaijan intending to join the CSTO". Although, the
public reaction Huseynli"s words was negative, his proposal caused
only questions in people's minds, as Armenia, one of the six members
of the CSTO, for many years has been occupying 20% of the territory of
Azerbaijan. On the other hand, in terms of ensuring its own security,
Armenia relies most on the CSTO and its locomotive - Russia.

It is not known, if Huseynli, speaking about the merits of the CSTO,
took into account the "factor of Armenia" (which, basically, was
caused by the reaction of the Azerbaijani society to his statements.)
However, the member of the Azerbaijani parliament did not make him
wait long for his speech, Armenia reminded herself.

In an interview with "Kommersant" (September 10), Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan, who visited Russia three times since he seized power in
May, finally clarified the issue of the CSTO from the position of his
country.

Answering the question from the correspondent of the newspaper
Vladimir Solovyov, "... there are talks about the establishment in the
CSTO of the status of "observer country" and "cooperating country". If
Azerbaijan claims these statuses, what will be the position of
Armenia?" Prime Minister Pashinyan replied: "Probably everyone knows
that without the consent of Armenia such decisions cannot be accepted.
All of you know about the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan
today. Every day we hear threats against Armenia from Azerbaijan. In
my opinion, Armenia's clear position on this issue is conditioned by
this".

The Prime Minister stressed that if Azerbaijan wants to achieve CSTO
membership, "first of all, it should establish relations with
Armenia."

According to Nikolai Vovaevich, Azerbaijan, expecting deterioration of
relations between Armenia and Russia, hoped, using this, to start
"provocative actions". He expressed confidence that this policy of
Azerbaijan has not yielded results.

However, Azerbaijan's concern may be caused more by Pashinyan's
attempt to present Nagorno-Karabakh as a separate state, than the
question of membership in the CSTO, touched on by the Prime Minister
of Armenia.

"They have their own power, their government, their president," said
Pashinyan, trying to transfer Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent
subject to the discussion center. Can his words be considered a
response to the Azerbaijani MP singing praises the CSTO?

In other words, can official Baku, thinking about the CSTO, be put
before the demand to "recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent
subject"? In addition, N. Pashinyan refers to the joint statement of
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries. Allegedly, they said that the
issue of the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh "must be resolved by the
will of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh."

The interview of the Armenian Prime Minister with the "Kommersant"
newspaper can again update the issue of the CSTO, which has not been
discussed for two weeks: has Azerbaijan benefited so much from
praising the CSTO by Huseynli, or ...?