Armenian Prime Minister Nikol PashinyanYEREVAN, Jan 19Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, during a government hour in parliament, explained why Yerevan did not apply to the CSTO after the aggravation on the border with Azerbaijan, which occurred in May and November last year. Responding to criticism that Yerevan did not apply to the CSTO during the aggravation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the prime minister said that the CSTO charter states that the Organization primarily acts by political and diplomatic methods. «CSTO is not an army,» Pashinyan said.Yerevan has developed a package of de-escalation measures on the border with Azerbaijan. According to him, Armenia's priority during the CSTO chairmanship in 2022 is to improve the mechanisms for rapid response and crisis response. He also stated that the use of CSTO rapid response mechanisms in Kazakhstan, which was applied for the first time in history, beneficial to Armenia. «For the first time in the history of the CSTO, the Organization's rapid response mechanism has been applied. Is it good for Armenia or not? Yes, it's good,» Pashinyan said.In Armenia, they realized that the West is using them, the State Duma believes. In turn, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan also said that when the need arises for the intervention of the allies, political mechanisms are used first of all, and if they are impossible, consultations and actions «on the field» are provided. «We hope to move in the same direction to solve problems,» Mirzoyan said. On November 16 last year, Yerevan announced that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched an attack in the eastern direction of the Armenian border and invaded the country's territory in the region of Mount Kilisali. According to the Armenian Ministry of Defense, one Armenian serviceman was killed, 13 were taken prisoner, communication with 24 military was lost. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported that seven Azerbaijani soldiers were killed and ten wounded in the battles on the border with Armenia. Prior to this, the situation seriously escalated in May 2021. Then the Azerbaijani Armed Forces were deployed in the border area in the Syunik region near the Black Lake. According to Pashinyan, Baku controls about 41 square kilometers of Armenian territory.
