Armenian MP says Yerevan could legally quit CSTO

The Armenian government might take legal action to quit the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance of former Soviet states, MP Tigran Abramyan of the I Have Honor Alliance, told the Russian newspaper "Izvestia,” 

Abramyan stated that Armenia had unrealistic expectations from the CSTO and the help it could provide. He added that Armenia should not do anything that would make it leave the CSTO, but he feared that the Armenian leadership might do so and harm relations with Russia.

"I believe that, following the steps they have already taken, they might not only exit the organization, as they have openly said, but also damage the ties with Russia significantly,” the politician said.

Abramyan also stressed that any improvement in Yerevan’s relations with the EU or any European country should not come at the expense of its relations with Moscow.

He suggested that multilateral platforms such as the CSTO, CIS, and EU involving Armenia and Russia should not be abandoned or suspended, but rather adapted to make cooperation more flexible and effective.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said earlier that Armenia’s participation in the CSTO was ‘basically frozen.

It is also worth mentioning that the "I Have Honor Alliance” has only seven out of 107 seats in the parliament. The political bloc was founded by former president Serzh Sargsyan, and its leader is Artur Vanesyan. The group, like other opposition parties, is pro-Russian and eurosceptic. In the last parliamentary elections, only 66,000 Armenian voters supported "I Have Honor Alliance.”

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