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No decision on Armenia’s pullout from Moscow-led bloc, says parliament speaker

Alen Simonyan said he did not rule out such decision

YEREVAN, February 29. /TASS/. The Armenian authorities aren’t changing their foreign policy course as Yerevan has not made a decision to withdraw from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan said at a briefing.

"There has been no talk about changing the policy course or anything like that. We are discussing ways to reduce the threats that Armenia may face. There is no decision to pull out of the CSTO but we don’t rule it out. Our society is also talking about it and one can say that there is a demand for that," Simonyan pointed out.

"We needed protection both in Nagorno-Karabakh and in Armenia’s sovereign territory. However, it became clear that our ally was not helping us," he added.

President of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree on September 28 to dissolve the unrecognized state from January 1, 2024. Its people were urged to consider the terms of reintegration in Azerbaijan, which were offered by Baku, and stay put if they choose to do so. The Armenian opposition blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government for what had happened. The Armenian prime minister and other high-ranking officials had repeatedly said that they recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in October 2023 that Nagorno-Karabakh had finally become part of Azerbaijan in 2022, after Pashinyan "made a statement that radically changed Karabakh’s status." In November 2023, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev stated that the Armenian Prime Minister had recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan under Western influence. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Yerevan is trying to blame all of its troubles on Moscow in a bid to justify its strategic turnaround.

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