News - PM: CSTO didn’t want to come as ally but as peacekeeper, this would gradually have dissolved Armenia

An attempt to zero, eradicate the statehood of Armenia was on May 12, 2021. Just two days after the National Assembly of Armenia was dissolved and the government had resigned in order to hold snap parliamentary elections in the country, the armed forces of Azerbaijan invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia—in the Sotk-Khoznavar sector. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this in his address Wednesday during the parliamentary debates on the performance of the Armenian government in 2023. "At that time, there were forces that demanded us to start military operations so that, as they said, the CSTO would come to our aid. In their opinion, the CSTO could not do such a thing without military operations, although the de jure worded obligations of the CSTO indicated something completely different," Pashinyan said. According to him, later it turned out that the CSTO did not want to come as an ally, but as a peacekeeper, which effectively excludes Armenia from its system of security guarantees. "If the [Armenian] government had given in to emotions and such emphases, the events could have proceeded in the following scenario: expansion of military operations deep within the sovereign territories of Armenia, non-holding of elections, absence of elected power, expansion of not CSTO allies, but peacekeepers, then formation of a puppet power, and actual dissolution of Armenia’s statehood. But the people of Armenia showed exceptional state-centeredness and responded to the calls of the government and the ruling majority. Under those difficult conditions, we were able to have [parliamentary] elections that were internationally appreciated as free and democratic," the Armenian premier added, in particular. "It is extremely important that the president of Azerbaijan recently reaffirmed his commitment to the Prague arrangements and the Alma Ata declaration. This can become the basis of long-term peace and stability, and we are ready to go on that road," emphasized the PM of Armenia.