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Armenia assumed the presidency of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and it is a good opportunity to check the importance of CSTO in terms of ensuring the military and political security of the republic, the founder and director of Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs, political analyst Stepan Safaryan told a press conference today.

At the session of CSTO Collective Security Council in Dushanbe on September 15, 2015, the CSTO presidency passed from Tajikistan to Armenia.

According to Stepan Safaryan, now that Armenia assumed the CSTO chairmanship, nothing prevents us from discussing within the CSTO framework the threats to the country’s military and political security.

Safaryan stressed the need to use this period, given the undiminishing military threat on the border of Armenia.

“The Armenian authorities repeatedly made statements about the viability of CSTO. It is time to check its viability. Armenia should rely not only on its own strength to halt the enemy’s activities, but also on the assistance of that organization. It is a political issue, and Armenia should be ready to deter the enemy not only on the border, but also shift to a policy of Azerbaijan’s isolation on international platforms, through international structures. CSTO may become one of platforms of this kind,” he noted.

In his words, obviously if this opportunity is missed, everything will continue by inertia and Azerbaijan will draw a conclusion about Armenia’s security and how the country’s membership in this or that organization affects the level of its protection.

Safaryan expressed an opinion that Armenia should oblige its allies – if not all of them , then at least Russia - to carry out their partnership agreements and joint actions in case of a military aggression by Azerbaijan.

‘Decisions taken within the framework of CSTO should form a legal basis for all this. I think such decisions will have a deterrent effect on Azerbaijan,” Safaryan said.