FIP Refutes Putin: Armenia Did Not Expect CSTO Involvement in Karabakh

YEREVAN (PanARMENIAN.Net) – The Fact Investigation Platform (FIP) has published a report refuting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims that Armenia expected the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to intervene during Azerbaijan’s war against Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.

The CSTO, a Russia-led security bloc, includes Armenia as a member. On Thursday, November 28, Putin dismissed Yerevan’s strong criticism of the CSTO while speaking to journalists following a CSTO summit in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, which was boycotted by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

“I think the current situation with the CSTO is most likely dictated by internal political processes in Armenia itself, and, of course, all this is connected with the consequences of the crisis in Karabakh,” Putin stated, addressing the boycott. “I want to stress that the CSTO has nothing to do with that.”

Putin argued that the CSTO’s mandate was not applicable, stating, “What happened has nothing to do with the CSTO because there was no external aggression against Armenia itself. The CSTO is supposed to defend its member states against external aggression.”

He elaborated further: “The events in Karabakh have their own specificities. Armenia did not recognize Karabakh as an independent state and certainly did not include Karabakh in its perimeter. This means that everything that happened in Karabakh has no legal relation to Armenia. So it’s kind of strange to expect the CSTO to fight on the territory of this enclave.”

The FIP report examined official statements from Yerevan during and after the 44-day war in 2020 to evaluate the accuracy of Putin’s claims. According to the platform, the Armenian government never formally requested CSTO assistance or the deployment of its units in Nagorno-Karabakh. Furthermore, no evidence in public records indicates that Yerevan had such expectations during the conflict.

However, Armenia did request military assistance from the CSTO during Azerbaijan’s attack on Armenia’s sovereign territory in 2022. Despite this, the CSTO and the leadership of several member states failed to recognize Baku’s actions as aggression against a member state, instead claiming the clashes occurred in disputed territories. The organization offered various justifications for not responding to Armenia’s request.

Following the 2022 aggression, Armenia’s appeal went unanswered. It was only weeks later that CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas characterized the Azerbaijani incursion as a “border incident,” and even then, “no decision was made to create a CSTO observer group.” Additionally, the organization did not act on Prime Minister Pashinyan’s proposal to deploy an observation mission on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in July of the same year.

In conclusion, Armenia sought CSTO assistance not during the 44-day war in 2020 but during Azerbaijan’s September 2022 aggression against Armenian territory. The CSTO did not respond to this request.