Armenia suspends participation in Russia-led regional military alliance

By Burc Eruygur and Nur Asena Erturk

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (AA) - Armenia has suspended its participation in a Russia-led regional military alliance, the country's prime minister announced.

"Today, in practice, we have frozen our participation in this treaty, in this organization. As for what comes next, we shall have to see," Nikol Pashinyan told an interview with French television France24.

Pashinyan said the alliance, Collective Security Treaty Organization -- which consists of six post-Soviet states -- has failed to fulfill its objectives "as far as Armenia is concerned, particularly in 2021 and 2022. And we could not let that happen without taking notice."

Other former Soviet members of the alliance are Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Azerbaijan liberated most of the Karabakh region during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement, opening the door to normalization.

The Armenian military occupied in 1991 the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

Last September, Baku initiated an "anti-terrorism operation" in Karabakh to establish "constitutional order," after which remaining separatist forces in the region surrendered.