Stepan Grigoryan: Lukashenka Sent Signal To Russian Agents In Armenia

The Kremlin knows that Yerevan wants to withdraw from the CSTO.

Lukashenka held a meeting with the Foreign Ministers of the CSTO member states, at which he called for “sticking together” and “strengthening integration”.

To what extent does this meet the interests of the CSTO countries themselves? The Charter97.org website talked about this with Stepan Grigoryan, one of the leaders of the democratic movement in Armenia in the 1990s, a former deputy of the Supreme Council of the republic and ex-Ambassador of Armenia to Russia.

— In the case of Armenia, of course, this does not reflect the interests of the Armenian side, this is obvious. I regret that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia is participating in this meeting. We have always recommended that our government withdraw from the CSTO, because the organization does not reflect the interests of the Armenian people.

I will give just one example to make it clear how much the CSTO threatens our interests. It is no secret to anyone that after the 2020 war, at least in four or five places, Azerbaijan entered the territory of Armenia. There are relevant resolutions, statements by the United States, France, the European Union, the European Parliament, PACE. It was in September last year when Azerbaijani troops approached Jermuk, a city in Armenia, located at a distance of about 10 kilometers from the border. Even then, the CSTO did not condemn the aggression against Armenia.

And people do not understand what this means, they say, “it means that this is a bad organization for you.” This is a dangerous organization because the CSTO claims that these are supposedly border disputes. It turns out that Azerbaijani troops entered the territory of Armenia in the Black Lakes region for three kilometers, in the Jermuk region for seven or eight kilometers, but this organization says that these are border disputes. Therefore, the CSTO is dangerous for our territorial integrity, they do not legally recognize our territory.

It is clear that there is no need to go to these CSTO meetings, it is necessary to leave the organization. What I am telling you now is not only Stepan Grigoryan's expert opinion. Dissatisfaction is periodically expressed by Nikol Pashinyan, the Prime Minister of Armenia and Ararat Mirzoyan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. If you look at their speeches over the past three months in the context of the CSTO, they present the same claims in different forms, but, unfortunately, they do not dare to withdraw from the CSTO. That is, the CSTO is not for us, any integration within the organization has nothing to do with the interests of Armenia.

— To what extent are such statements an initiative of Lukashenka, or is it done at the request of Putin?

— I have no doubts that this is done at the request of Putin. Another thing is that at the moment this coincides with the interests of Lukashenka, not Belarus, but specifically Lukashenka. No one wants to be a puppet under Putin, so that it can be seen so clearly, that is why these calls are made to join the union of Belarus and Russia, so that there is no such ridiculous situation.

Lukashenka does not want to be such an odious figure in the presence of a war criminal, no one likes this. Therefore, he is trying to develop such initiatives. Do you remember his initiative that “now Russia is redeploying nuclear weapons to our territory, join the union of Belarus and Russia so that you have nuclear weapons”? Such initiatives are not accidental.

— Tokayev then refused to enter into such an alliance and emphasized the non-nuclear status of Kazakhstan.

— Yes, this is a well-known thing, Kazakhstan always tries to defend its sovereignty. Tokayev's reaction was important and very appropriate, because Kazakhstan is an important player in the CSTO. In the case of Armenia, we do not even have such a political issue, and this is good. But, from my point of view, it is necessary to leave the CSTO, this organization is really very dangerous for our territorial integrity.

— Today, the Belarusian dictator said that “Armenia expresses well-grounded claims against the CSTO”. Earlier, he shouted at Pashinyan that the claims were unfounded. What has changed?

— In Armenia, Russian agents are very influential, they know that the issue of withdrawal from the CSTO is on the agenda of the government. It is clear what will happen if one of the countries leaves the organization. This can simply destroy the CSTO, they are afraid of this, which is why such a gesture of supposed understanding was made. Moreover, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are also dissatisfied with the reaction of the CSTO to their conflicts. Therefore, now they are making such a gesture so that the pro-Russian agents, whom we have a lot, become more active in Armenia. They will start making such speeches, they say, “see, they understand, and you criticize them and so on.” This is a rather primitive move, but this sometimes works.

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