Armenian plans to leave key security alliance

YEREVAN

The leader of Armenia has declared his intention to pull out of a Russia-dominated security alliance of several ex-Soviet nations as tensions rise between the two allies.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his government will decide later when to leave the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, a grouping that includes Russia and the former Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Amid the widening rift with Russia, Armenia earlier froze its participation in the alliance, canceled its involvement in joint military drills and snubbed CSTO summits.

Pashinyan said on June 12 for the first time that Armenia will leave CSTO altogether. He spoke during a question-and-answer session in parliament, saying that the government will decide later when to make the final move.

“We will leave,” Pashinyan said. “We will decide when to leave. We won't come back, there is no other way.”

Shortly after, in an apparent attempt to soften the blow to Moscow, Armenia's Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized that Pashinyan hadn't announced the full withdrawal yet.

“Those who assert that the prime minister said that Armenia is withdrawing from the CSTO are mistaken,” Mirzoyan said.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow.

Armenia’s ties with Russia, its longtime sponsor and ally, have grown increasingly strained after Azerbaijan waged a lightning military campaign in September to take the Karabakh region, ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatist rule there.

Baku on June 12 announced that Russian peacekeepers completed their withdrawal from the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The withdrawal, which began in April, has been agreed between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart İlham Aliyev.