Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, making closing remarks at the session of the National Assembly said, “I will never visit Belarus as long as Alexander Lukashenka is president: from now on, no official representative of Armenia will visit Belarus: Pashinyan.”
According to Pashinyan Lukashenka was involved in the preparation of the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2020 together with the president of Azerbaijan.
"A member of the CSTO claims that he participated in the preparation of the 44-day war (in Nagorno-Karabakh ed.), encouraged, believed and wished for Azerbaijan's victory. And after that I should discuss any issues in the CSTO format with the President of Belarus"?
With this, Pashinyan made it clear that Belarus was one of the two mysterious countries that helped Aliyev prepare for war against Armenia.
Earlier Lukashenka called Azerbaijan's military operation in Karabakh a “war of liberation” and offered Baku assistance in the post-war reconstruction of the territory.
In February 2024, Armenia announced the “freezing” of its membership in the CSTO. Pashinyan said that the next logical step after the membership freeze would be Armenia's withdrawal from the CSTO.
However, speaking today, the Armenian Prime Minister set conditions under which “the attitude towards the CSTO may change”. According to him, if Belarus decides to withdraw from the organization or Lukashenka “utters such words of apology that will be acceptable to the Armenian people”, then “theoretically, changes in Armenia's relations with the CSTO cannot be ruled out”.
Following Pashinyan's statements, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said that the Ambassador of Armenia to Belarus has been summoned to Yerevan for consultations.
Nikol Pashinyan stated that the country has questions to the mechanisms of work of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. As a result of the work carried out, the government concluded that the military alliance led by Russia refuses to assume its obligations to protect the country. Therefore, the Armenian government is now studying the issue of the country's withdrawal from the CSTO.
"When it will happen (withdrawal from the CSTO - ed.) - we will decide. Perhaps, in a month, in a year,” said the Armenian Prime Minister speaking in the Parliament yesterday.
In January 2023, Pashinyan said that Armenia was not going to hold the planned CSTO exercises on its territory, after which the country held joint exercises with the United States. In November of the same year, Armenia refused to participate in the organization's summit in Minsk.
We shall remind you that a few days ago, the Armenian Ambassador to Ukraine traveled to Bucha and expressed support for the Ukrainians, after which the Russian Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to Yerevan.
It is important to know that the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) is a regional international organization whose members have pledged to defend each other in case of attack. It includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
