The tense situation in southern Armenia does not comply with the provisions of the CSTO collective defense charter and is considered a border incident. CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas told reporters about this, according to TASS.
“It must be understood that the CSTO potential is used only in case of aggression, attack. Here [in Armenia’s case] we are dealing, in fact, with a border incident. Thank God, there are no casualties, no shootings. This is a border incident, it must be resolved, and we [the CSTO] are in favor of resolving it peacefully,” he stated.
According to Zas, there is no escalation of the conflict. “Now we do not have to talk about the situation getting worse in some way. It is not getting worse, and that is already good, is already a result. There is a lot of work to be done ahead to resolve this contentious issue at the very [Armenia-Azerbaijan] border, but it must be resolved at the negotiating table,” Zas stressed.
Also, he said that after Armenia applied to the CSTO in May, the organization held consultations on the situation in the country’s border regions. “Such consultations were held at the level of defense ministers, secretaries of security councils, and I communicated with both the Armenian [acting] foreign minister and the [acting] defense minister. We were discussing the situation on the ground. Besides, we have already had a general discussion during the session of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers in Dushanbe,” he said.
Stanislav Zas assured that the CSTO is constantly monitoring the situation in southern Armenia. “No decision has been made on the setting up of a monitoring group, although, of course, the situation is being monitored,” the CSTO chief said.
