PM Pashinyan Accuses Two CSTO Allies of Aiding Azerbaijan in 2020 War in Nagorno-Karabakh

YEREVAN — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused on Wednesday Armenia’s allies in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) of assisting Azerbaijan in defeating Nagorno-Karabakh in a 44-day war in 2020.

Speaking in parliament during the government’s question-and-answer session, Pashinyan said he knows of at least two CSTO member states that “participated in the preparation of the war planned against us.”

Pashinyan’s comments came after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who recently visited Baku, was quoted by Azerbaijani media as recalling in conversation with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev their “philosophical conversation” before the 2020 war and their conclusion that “it can be won.”

“President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said what I have been trying to convey to the Republic of Armenia for 4 years. It is clear that I could not say it directly. Now there is an occasion, and I want to say it directly. These countries (the second one – presumably Russia) have created an “imitation” that they want to help us or have allegedly helped us. This war was not even about Nagorno-Karabakh. They have long ago closed the Nagorno-Karabakh issue for themselves. This war was about Armenia ceasing to exist as an independent state,’ Pashinyan said.