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Alen Simonyan: CSTO itself that has withdrawn from Armenia, and not Armenia from the CSTO

Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Alen Simonyan

26 October 2022 13:52 (UTC +04:00)

"Armenia is not discussing the issue of leaving the CSTO, waiting for a reaction," said Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Alen Simonyan, APA reports.

“Armenia wants to be treated fairly, it wants the obligations regarding its borders to be fulfilled. And for this, Armenia will do anything. There are no emotions here, it’s not a matter of liking or disliking. There are obligations, and we will follow the implementation of those obligations, and we will try to protect our borders and the lives of our [troops] by all possible means,” Simonyan said.

Asked to comment on Russian media reports and whether or not a shift of political course is possible, Simonyan said: “Excuse me, but perhaps it is the Russian side that wants to change its political course because Armenia hasn’t done anything in that direction. After the revolution, there was a lot of talk about the withdrawal of the Russian military base, withdrawal from the CSTO, and other things. An unequivocal statement was done in this regard. There is no such need, there is no such thing. It is a fact, isn’t it, we see that it is the CSTO itself that has withdrawn from Armenia, and not Armenia from the CSTO. If the CSTO has left, then they should notify us about that so that we’ll be able to protect our borders with some other mechanisms,” Simonyan said.