Armenia appeals to CSTO to solve conflict at border with Azerbaijan

An official appeal has been sent to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in connection with the penetration of Azerbaijani soldiers into the territory of Armenia, Tigran Avinyan, acting Deputy Prime Minister, reports today.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 12, Azerbaijani militaries advanced three kilometres deep into the Syunik Region of Armenia and, according to the administration of the city of Goris, tried to gain a foothold in the area of Black Lake. The next day, the Azerbaijani militaries again tried to advance deep into the Syunik Region, but were stopped, the Armenian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has informed.

Nikol Pashinyan, acting Prime Minister of Armenia, appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin within the agreement on mutual military assistance, although that fact should not be used a pretext to talk about the beginning of a new war, notes Alen Simonyan, acting deputy speaker of the parliament. “There were no clashes, but there are various movements. Well, there are issues related to the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, and we have appealed to our military ally,” the acting Deputy Prime Minister said. He has added that the situation at the border is changing every minute. “Yesterday, we expected that the Azerbaijani troops would retract, and there were discussions about that. At present, no movement of the troops takes place anymore,” Alen Simonyan said as quoted by the “Sputnik Armenia”.

The conflict situation at the border threatens to disrupt the parliamentary elections, says Edmon Marukyan, the leader of the “Enlightened Armenia” Party and the head of its parliamentary faction. “The current situation is not an internal political process for us, it is a process of joint actions against the enemy,” the “News.am” quotes today Edmon Marukyan as saying.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 14, 2021 at 04:45 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.