YEREVAN, November 24. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not sign a draft of the CSTO Collective Security Council’s declaration on joint measures to provide aid to the Republic of Armenia.
According to the prime minister, the document has not been sufficiently finalized. "The absence of a clear political assessment of the situation <…> may not only imply the CSTO refusing its allied obligations but may also be interpreted by Azerbaijan as a green light from the CSTO to further aggression against Armenia. And this contradicts the CSTO’s founding documents both in letter, spirit and meaning. So, proceeding from this, my esteemed colleagues, at this moment I think that the draft of the CSTO Collective Security Council’s declaration on joint measures to provide aid to the Republic of Armenia submitted for the signing has not been sufficiently revised and in this form, with all due respect, I am not ready to sign these documents," Pashinyan said during his closing speech at the CSTO summit.
He reiterated to the heads of state that the risk of new aggression against Armenia’s territorial integrity on the part of Azerbaijan remains. "CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas reported on this at the Collective Security Council’s emergency session on October 28," the Armenian prime minister said.
During the pre-dawn hours of September 13, the Armenian Defense Ministry said that Azerbaijani forces had opened fire on some of the country’s settlements. Baku said it was responding to provocations by Yerevan. The Armenian Security Council convened an emergency meeting where a decision was made to ask Russia to use the provisions of the Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and also to appeal to the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the UN Security Council.