MOSCOW Jan 27 The CSTO mission can be quickly deployed in Armenia in the event that Yerevan is interested in this, said the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.
«We record that in Yerevan, without bringing to its logical conclusion the work on the direction of the CSTO mission, they preferred to make a choice in favor of the EU. If the Armenian allies remain interested in using the potential of the CSTO, its mission may be operationally deployed in Armenia,» Zakharova said at a briefing on Friday.
In October last year, at a meeting in Luxembourg, the EU Foreign Ministers officially approved the dispatch of forty observers to Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan. At the end of October, the mission was deployed and began to work. It was reported that the mission «is aimed at building confidence-building measures in conditions of instability, which poses a risk to people's lives and poses a threat to the conflict resolution process.» The mission of observers was designed for two months.
At the end of September 2020, hostilities resumed in Nagorno-Karabakh, which became a continuation of a long-term conflict and led to civilian casualties. The parties made several attempts to conclude a truce, but the tripartite agreement reached on the night of November 10 was successful.
With the mediation of Moscow, Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to completely cease fire and exchange prisoners and bodies of the dead. Yerevan also handed over to Baku the Kelbajar and Lachin regions, as well as part of the Aghdam region, which since 1994 have been under the control of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. In addition, Russian peacekeepers have been stationed in the region.