MOSCOW—Head of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Nikolay Bordyuzha has said the organization’s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was clearly stated in a series of statements made last year, while not reiterating what that position was, Arka news agency reports.

 

Speaking to journalists in Moscow on Friday, Bordyuzha said he had visited Armenian army units and discussed the recent upsurge in violence on the Armenian-Azeri border and the Artsakh-Azeri border with the President of Armenia.

The CSTO Secretary General said the issue was discussed last summer at a meeting between Russian president Vladimir Putin and the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Sochi, when Putin chaired the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s Council.

In response to a question from a Novosti-Armenia reporter as to why the CSTO did not respond to commando raids by Azerbaijani troops across the border with Armenia, Bordyuzha said the CSTO cannot respond by military measures, because it runs counter to the basic formula of the Collective Security Council, which says the Nagorno-Karabakh problem is to be solved by peaceful means and on the basis of non-use of force.

Speaking about recent attacks by Azeri troops resulting in the deaths of Armenian servicemen, Bordyuzha said: “We are talking about how this problem should be addressed at the political level and I think the statements made CSTO are quite serious and weighty, reflecting not only the opinion of the Russian Federation.”

Since the beginning of January, tensions have escalated on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh where clashes have occurred on a daily basis with Azerbaijani forces shelling Armenian positions and conducting raids.

Bordyuzha also announced to journalists that CSTO member states will begin producing military hardware and equipment that were previously purchased from Ukraine.

According to Nikolai Bordyuzha, the kind of hardware in question can be manufactured in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

Bordyuzha also announced that a number of large-scale military exercises will be conducted in the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in 2015.

For example, a large-scale exercise will be held with the participation of the Collective Rapid Reaction Force. And in September and October, Armenia will host exercises by the CSTO’s peacekeeping forces. Drug control services and law enforcement agencies of CSTO member states will also conduct military exercises in 2015.