Armenia has refused to host army training through the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-led alliance of post-Soviet countries, in an announcement reflecting Yerevan’s emerging tensions with Moscow.
Russia announced earlier this year that Armenia would host the annual trainings of the six states: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
“The Minister of Defense of Armenia informed the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the CSTO that, in the current scenario, it is not reasonable to conduct CSTO training on the territory of Armenia. At least, such trainings will not be held in Armenia this year,” news firm Interfax reported, according to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
When Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about the cancelled military exercise, Moscow would ask Yerevan to explain its position.
“In any case, Armenia is our close ally and we will continue our dialogue, adding the most complex issues,” he told reporters.
Pashinyan’s resolution follows his refusal in 2022 to signal a final assembly of leaders of CSTO member countries in Yerevan, the Armenian capital.
The tensions are rooted in the conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The two ex-Soviet states have intelligent relations with Russia despite their invasion of Ukraine; Armenia hosts a Russian army base and the Kremlin wants to establish ties with oil-rich Azerbaijan.
Nagorno-Karabakh is located in Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces subsidized through Yerevan since the end of a separatist war in 1994. This confrontation left not only Nagorno-Karabakh, but also huge tracts of surrounding land in Armenian hands.
In 44 days of heavy fighting that began in September 2020, Azerbaijan’s military defeated Armenian forces, forcing Yerevan to settle for a Russian-brokered peace deal that saw the return of a significant component of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan.
The agreement also required Armenia to regain tracts of land it had outside the breakaway region.
Pashinyan has criticized Russian peacekeepers for failing to ensure safe passage along a corridor linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Lachin province, which lies between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, the last of the 3 spaces around the region that Armenian forces surrendered in December 2020.
Russia has deployed around 2,000 peacekeepers to ensure transit through the region and monitor the peace deal.
But the movement in Lachin province has been blocked since Dec. 12 by Azerbaijanis posing as environmental activists claiming Armenia has illegal mining sites in the region.
Armenia has asked Russian peacekeepers to unblock the route, but Moscow has taken a low profile in the dispute, angering the Armenian government.
“The presence of Russia’s military in Armenia only guarantees its safety, but poses a threat to Armenia’s security,” Pashinyan said Tuesday.
He added that the blockade of the Lachin room is aimed at “breaking the will of the other people of Nagorno-Karabakh,” and that Armenia will also seek the help of the United States and the European Union to help ease tensions with Azerbaijan.