All Those Countries Standing Beside Them Are in a Vassal Status: Civil Contract Member on CSTO

First, it is necessary to clarify what the CSTO has provided us with all this time. We are members of the CSTO, and an adversary has invaded our borders, while the CSTO has not responded at all. This was stated by Gagik Melkonyan, a member of the National Assembly from the "Civil Contract" faction, in an interview with NEWS.am.

“We even appealed to them once in May 2021. They said, ‘You didn’t appeal with the resolution you should have.’ You should have appealed with the 4th resolution, but you appealed with the 2nd resolution. Later, we changed our appeal to the 2nd resolution. They did nothing, saying, ‘We do not know where your borders are.’ Meanwhile, after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, everyone recognized each other’s territorial integrity. But now they say they will send observers. It is interesting that if those people come, where will they stand if they do not recognize our borders, do not know them? Where will they stand, in Yerevan?” Melkonyan noted.

In response to the question of why Armenia remains in the CSTO, the MP replied, “The time will come when everything will be cleared up, and we will understand what is what. Russia is afraid that if Armenia leaves the CSTO, the next will be Kazakhstan, which will exit immediately. This means that this bloc will collapse. They want to show that there are countries standing beside them, but all those countries standing beside them are in a vassal status. They dictate the politics, the economy. And they want the CSTO to remain,” he said.

He added that a year ago, in November, Armenia raised the question before the CSTO as to whether they recognize Azerbaijan as an aggressor that has entered Armenia's borders, and they received no response. “Now, seeing that the CSTO is not of interest to us, and when they saw that we have alternatives, we are cooperating with other countries, they have turned on each other,” concluded the Civil Contract MP.