Armenian political analysts report on struggle for post of CSTO Secretary General

On November 8, the CSTO summit was held in Astana. The state leaders have not agreed on a new candidate for the post of the CSTO Secretary General. On December 6, discussion of the issue will be continued at a CSTO meeting in Saint Petersburg, reported on the same day the press service for Nikol Pashinyan, the acting Prime Minister of Armenia, on his website.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 2, Yuri Khachaturov, the Secretary General of the CSTO, accused in the case of the dispersal of protesters in Yerevan in 2008, was recalled from his post before the end of his term in office.

Kazakhstan and Belarus are struggling behind the scenes in attempts to use the situation with the appointment of the CSTO Secretary General and to get benefits for themselves, believes Armen Vardanyan, an expert from the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs. He has noted that the above mentioned countries perceive Armenia as a Russian satellite and do not treat it as a military and political ally. "Another important factor is the relations of those countries with Azerbaijan. Belarus supplies arms to Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan offered Azerbaijan the status of an observer country in the CSTO. Kazakhstan can use the failure of an Armenian candidate to conclude a bargain with Azerbaijan and get benefits for oneself," said Armen Vardanyan.

Political analyst Grant Mikaelyan, a researcher at the Institute of the Caucasus, agrees that Kazakhstan and Belarus oppose the appointment of an Armenian candidate for the post of the CSTO Secretary General. "The CSTO partners want to take advantage of political instability in Armenia in order to benefit from it. There is also a factor of Azerbaijan, in relations with which both countries have their own interests," Grant Mikaelyan told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 10, 2018 at 08:56 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.