The twenty-thousandth grouping of the rapid reaction forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will be ready to render military assistance to Armenia, if such decision is taken by the supreme body of the organization - the Council. This was recently announced at the meeting with journalists by the head of the CSTO Joint Staff Anatoly Sidorov, Eurasia Diary reports with reference to the Armenian editorial office of Radio Liberty.
"If one of the states needs real help, then the forces of the collective forces will be ready to come and help it to fulfill the task which is defined in the charter of the decision of the Collective Security Council. And Armenia should have no doubts. We have more than 20,000 highly trained servicemen. Mostly these are servicemen of special purpose units, "the Russian general said.
Russian General Sidorov made it clear that in the case of the Karabakh war, the CSTO members will stand up for Armenia, but apparently the general is little aware of Azerbaijan's relations with Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Eurasia Diary asked the director of the Institute of the EAEA Vladimir Lepekhin to comment on the unreasonable rhetoric of the Russian general.
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"The statement of General Sidorov gave rise to a lot of questions from the Azerbaijani side. Including the question of whether other CSTO members will fight on the side of Armenia in case of aggravation of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. From my point of view, Anatoly Sidorov did not at all claim that the CSTO intends to fight against Azerbaijan. He only noted that the decision of the CSTO to support someone is taken by the CB Council. No one can predict today what decision the Council will take in this or that case.
Secondly, the CSTO has never used military measures, even against the Kyrgyz opposition, at the request of the leadership of this country as a CSTO member. We must understand that the CSTO is not a military bloc, but, above all, a geopolitical unification, and it intends to solve all conflict issues primarily by political methods. And till now it was possible. It is obvious that in case of aggravation of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, CSTO members will do their utmost to solve the problem in a political way.
Thirdly, personally, I believe that within the post-Soviet space, CSTO members in principle do not allow the use of lethal weapons, so that the possibility of applying military measures is considered in the Organization only in the event of external threats. When, in fact, a consensus within the CSTO is possible. In short, the words of the Russian general should be taken very carefully. "
