Basingan justifies this move by saying that Russia and KBSZSZ members did not adhere to collective protection agreements, Which would have been the core of the collaboration.
He also mentioned that at the moment The Russian military base operating on the territory of Armenia has not yet been closed. But he had previously spoken several times about the fact that the institution had lost its right to exist.
Nikol Pashinyan and Armenia have begun to drift away from Russia spectacularly and rapidly since Azerbaijan's takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan expected that Russian peacekeepers operating in the region would protect the region from Azerbaijani forces regaining control, but Russian soldiers were unable to deter the attack by Azerbaijani forces and did not take up arms against Baku soldiers. Not even though Azerbaijani soldiers opened fire on Russian peacekeepers.
Nagorno-Karabakh is considered a gray area from the point of view of the CSTO collective defense agreements: according to international law, the region is part of Azerbaijan, and the “Republic of Astrekh”, which once operated in the region, was unrecognized by CSTO members collective as an independent state. Thus, the defense cooperation mechanism may not even have legally covered the historical area that was attacked.
Cover image source: Aziz Karimov/Getty Images
