12:17,

YEREVAN, MAY 20, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the question on why Armenia applied to the CSTO without having engaged in armed resistance against the Azerbaijani incursion.

“All those who’ve at least read a few paragraphs from the CSTO treaties will know that the CSTO is for the very reason for crisis situations to be overcome without firing,” he said at the Cabinet meeting. “It isn’t an organization within the framework of which one should fire and then invite others to fire. It’s an organization whose mechanisms should be applied to not allow escalation, to resolve the escalation diplomatically. This is the very essence of the CSTO. If shooting starts within the framework of the CSTO, with high probability it could transform into a big regional war, if not a bigger large-scale war in the event of certain scenarios,” he said. From this perspective, he said, it is highly important to understand the Azeri side’s goal. “One of the options was to instigate war, and we must focus on the fact that at least in the Syunik section this action was being carried out in the narrowest part of the Syunik province and of Armenian territory, approximately 26 kilometers wide. If the situation was to go out of control, uncontrollable situations could unfold there, which subsequently could create very big problems. We’ve decided that we must solve the issue through our international security mechanisms, I think this is right, and as of this moment it justifies itself, although we still can’t say that we’ve reached our goal this way. Considering the domestic processes in Armenia, we can’t rule out that the purpose of this action could be to influence the domestic processes and the results of the election, and maybe even to provide political assistance to the network of propaganda and agents operating in Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan also addressed the question on how the Azeri troops were able to cross the border.

“First I want to say that after the war our border became several kilometers longer. And in the parts where we are dealing there are difficult terrain mountainous sections, covered with snow in most times of the year and where any engineering works are impossible. The border’s current condition in this part from the Armenian side is the same from the Azerbaijani side.”

He added another issue: “We must combine today’s situation with the content of the November 9 statement, because, yes, with our assessments the movement of the Azerbaijani troops is in direct contradiction with the November 9 trilateral statement. And here we must also express certain positions and implement diplomatic work to record this.”

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan