Armenian PM criticizes Russian-dominated security pact

Nikol Pashinyan points to “objective problems” in relations with the Kremlin, but says they have not turned into a crisis.

Armenia’s prime minister has accused a Moscow-dominated security alliance of sidelining his country under the threat of renewed hostilities with neighboring Azerbaijan.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly criticized what he described as the failure of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, to protect member Armenia amid a standoff with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russia, which has tried to preserve strong ties with its ally Armenia while maintaining friendly relations with energy-rich Azerbaijan, has engaged in a delicate diplomatic balancing act, avoiding any forceful action. The Kremlin’s influence in the region has become more limited as Russia has focused its resources on the war in Ukraine.

Pashinyan told a press conference that it was not Armenia that was withdrawing from the CSTO, but rather “the CSTO was withdrawing from Armenia whether it wanted to or not”.

“We are concerned about that,” Pashinyan said.

He stressed that “the threat of an escalation along the Armenian border and in Nagorno-Karabakh is very high now,” noting “increasingly aggressive rhetoric from Azerbaijan.”

Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan escalated in December when Azerbaijani protesters claiming to be environmental activists blocked the so-called Lachin corridor, the main highway between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, leaving its 120,000 inhabitants without food and other basic supplies. Last month, the United Nations supreme court ordered Azerbaijan to allow free movement on the road to resume, but the situation remains tense.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan, but has been under the control of Armenian-backed ethnic Armenian forces since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

In 2020, Azerbaijani troops defeated Armenian forces in six weeks of fighting that ended in a Russian-brokered peace deal that allowed Azerbaijan to seize a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh and retake nearby areas that had been in Armenian hands for almost Two decades.

During the latest standoff, Pashinyan and other Armenian officials sharply criticized Russia and the Moscow-dominated CSTO for failing to guarantee free transit through the Lachin corridor.

Reflecting its irritation with Moscow, Armenia canceled a military exercise planned by CSTO members for this year and refrained from naming its representative to the bloc’s leadership.

Pashinyan said he raised Armenians’ concerns about the situation during a call on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, mentioning a recent protest organized by Nagorno-Karabakh residents outside the headquarters of Russian peacekeepers.

The Armenian leader pointed to “objective problems” in relations with the Kremlin, but said he does not believe they have turned into a crisis.

In another sign of his irritation with Moscow, Pashinyan said Armenia would welcome other countries, such as the United States and Germany, to help negotiate peace talks with Azerbaijan.

He also noted that “the existing security architecture did not work,” adding that Yerevan was making efforts to “establish military-technical cooperation with many other countries.”