Today, a protest rally called “Armenia out of the CSTO” was held in Yerevan.

Participant Narek Ayvazyan wrote on his Facebook page: “We state that the international community has supported the Republic of Armenia, and at the same time we document that the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the CSTO, of which the Republic of Armenia is a founding member and the member states of that organization, have taken a neutral or opposing position, directly and indirectly harming Armenia. We declare that Article 4 of the Agreement on Collective Security has been violated. According to this article, “if any of the member states is subjected to aggression by any state or group of states, it will be considered by the member states as aggression against all the states party to this Treaty. In the event of an act of aggression against any of the participating states, the remaining participating states will provide the necessary assistance, including military assistance, and will also provide assistance with the means at their disposal in accordance with the procedure for the exercise of the right to collective defense, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter.” 

According to Narek Ayvazyan, the CSTO did not take measures to prevent Azerbaijan’s aggression, and during the clashes it did not provide military assistance to Armenia to protect the territorial integrity of the founding member state, stating that the organization is “outdated, useless and harmful” both to the Republic of Armenia and other sovereign countries.

“The positions adopted by the organization and its members towards Armenia’s security, territorial integrity, sovereignty, and international peace, as well as the violation of the most important point of the Agreement, give us the basis to demand the RA government and parliament to withdraw from the CSTO as soon as possible and to deepen the relations with all the countries that support us as much as possible,” he wrote.