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HERITAGE MEMBER CHALLENGES RUSSIA-LED DEFENSE PACT TO ACT ON AZERI AGGRESSION
http://armenianow.com/news/38567/csto_karabakh_azerbaijan_aggression_stepan_safarya n
News | 07.06.12 | 13:55
Stepan Safaryan, a leading member of the opposition Heritage party,
thinks the latest Azerbaijani cross-border incursions into Armenian
territory proper merit a reaction from the Russia-led defense alliance
of which Armenia is a member.
At a press conference on Thursday Safaryan suggested that Armenia
must also explicitly demand such response from the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that embraces seven former Soviet
republics, also including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan. The organization was set up in the wake of the USSR
breakup as a defense pact. Under its statues, aggression against any
of the CSTO member state will draw a collective response from all
participating nations.
"I would like to see a response of the organization to what has
happened [on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border]," said Safaryan.
At least nine people died in recent border incidents in Armenia,
Azerbaijan and near Karabakh as Yerevan and Baku traded accusations
of violating the ceasefire that has largely held since 1994.
Armenia says it lost three soldiers in a single combat incident
after a group of Azeri commandos attacked its defense positions in
the northeast of the country on Monday morning. It said it killed
five Azeris in repelling another attack the following morning. The
situation in Armenia's northeastern borderlands has generally remained
volatile since the beginning of this week.
So far, however, the authorities of Armenia have been reluctant to
acknowledge that the series of border shooting incidents amount to
a full-blown aggression.
President Serzh Sargsyan stopped short of invoking Armenia's allied
ties with Russia and the CSTO on the whole in condemning the mounting
violence along the border.
"We do not want escalation but we will react to any action against our
citizens and state borders and Nagorno-Karabakh," he said on Thursday.
Speaking on Public TV earlier this week, National Security Council
Secretary Artur Baghdasaryan avoided calling the border incidents a
full-scale aggression, too.
At the press conference today Heritage's Safaryan opined that Russia
simply cannot afford to engage against Azerbaijan, as Azerbaijan
tacitly supports Russia's efforts to scuttle Western energy plans in
the region.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
http://armenianow.com/news/38567/csto_karabakh_azerbaijan_aggression_stepan_safarya n
News | 07.06.12 | 13:55
Stepan Safaryan, a leading member of the opposition Heritage party,
thinks the latest Azerbaijani cross-border incursions into Armenian
territory proper merit a reaction from the Russia-led defense alliance
of which Armenia is a member.
At a press conference on Thursday Safaryan suggested that Armenia
must also explicitly demand such response from the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) that embraces seven former Soviet
republics, also including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan. The organization was set up in the wake of the USSR
breakup as a defense pact. Under its statues, aggression against any
of the CSTO member state will draw a collective response from all
participating nations.
"I would like to see a response of the organization to what has
happened [on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border]," said Safaryan.
At least nine people died in recent border incidents in Armenia,
Azerbaijan and near Karabakh as Yerevan and Baku traded accusations
of violating the ceasefire that has largely held since 1994.
Armenia says it lost three soldiers in a single combat incident
after a group of Azeri commandos attacked its defense positions in
the northeast of the country on Monday morning. It said it killed
five Azeris in repelling another attack the following morning. The
situation in Armenia's northeastern borderlands has generally remained
volatile since the beginning of this week.
So far, however, the authorities of Armenia have been reluctant to
acknowledge that the series of border shooting incidents amount to
a full-blown aggression.
President Serzh Sargsyan stopped short of invoking Armenia's allied
ties with Russia and the CSTO on the whole in condemning the mounting
violence along the border.
"We do not want escalation but we will react to any action against our
citizens and state borders and Nagorno-Karabakh," he said on Thursday.
Speaking on Public TV earlier this week, National Security Council
Secretary Artur Baghdasaryan avoided calling the border incidents a
full-scale aggression, too.
At the press conference today Heritage's Safaryan opined that Russia
simply cannot afford to engage against Azerbaijan, as Azerbaijan
tacitly supports Russia's efforts to scuttle Western energy plans in
the region.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress