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Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict

CSTO mission to arrive in Armenia on September 15 — Foreign Minister

Country's request was duly discussed at the organization, top diplomat remarks

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service/TASS

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan

© Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service/TASS

YEREVAN, September 14. /TASS/. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that a mission of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will arrive in Armenia on September 15.

"We expect that the CSTO mission will arrive in Armenia as early as tomorrow. Our request was duly discussed at the CSTO," the top diplomat said speaking during the government hour at the parliament on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, at an emergency session in a video conference format, the CSTO Council decided to send the organization’s mission to Armenia in order to assess the situation around the escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. As reported earlier, the mission will include Secretary General of the CSTO Stanislav Zas, Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff Colonel General Anatoly Sidorov and the representatives of CSTO member states. Additionally, the organization decided to set up a working group "consisting of the secretariat’s staff and the servicemen of allied headquarters in order to constantly monitor the situation in the CSTO responsibility zone."

The Armenian Defense Ministry said in the early hours of Tuesday that Azerbaijan’s armed forces had opened fire on the settlements of Goris, Sotk and Jermuk, using artillery, heavy guns and small arms. The Armenian Security Council held an emergency meeting, making a decision to request Russian assistance by activating the relevant provisions of the Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and also to appeal to the CSTO and the UN Security Council. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told the country’s parliament that the Azerbaijani attacks had killed 49 people.

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