YEREVAN, September 14. /TASS/. Armenian authorities requested military aid from the CSTO in order to restore the country’s territorial integrity, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during the government hour at the parliament on Wednesday.
"Armenia addressed the CSTO under Article 4, requesting, among other things, military aid in order to restore the country’s territorial integrity," he said.
"Yesterday, at a CSTO session, [a proposal was discussed] on creating international monitoring mechanisms for the observance of a ceasefire during the delimitation and demarcation of the border. We think that it is necessary to implement it and ensure that the aggressor leaves Armenian territories," he said. "I would like to say that at the CSTO meeting, our colleagues clearly registered that Azerbaijan invaded Armenia’s sovereign territory," he added. The prime minister also noted that "the CSTO meeting launched a process which should be concluded with specific decisions."
Pashinyan stressed that Armenia turned to Russia for military aid as well, among other things. "Additionally, we addressed other partners who will discuss the invasion of Armenia’s sovereign territory at a session of the UN Security Council," he stated.
On Tuesday, at an emergency session in a video conference format, the Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) 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 the Azerbaijani 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. The Armenian prime minister told the country’s parliament that the Azerbaijani attacks had killed 105 Armenian servicemen.