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The member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) attach importance to steps aimed at preventing terrorist attacks, Konstantin Zatulin, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, told reporters after the session of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan.

In response to reporters’ remarks that Azerbaijani shelling of Armenia’s civilian settlements is also an act of terrorism and what steps the Russia-led security bloc takes to prevent Azerbaijan’s attacks, Zatulin said: “One of the reports at today’s session pointed to the tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone.”

Addressing the tensions on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan, the Russian official said: “If Armenia, as a CSTO member, sees any need to put forward the issue to the other CSTO member states, it is eligible to do so, but I have never heard Armenia raise such an issue. You are voicing the problem now, but the official Yerevan has not made such a request to the CSTO.”

“As CSTO member states we have obligations to each other. Russia views Armenia as an ally and in the event of an attack the mechanisms envisaged by the CSTO [Charter] will apply to Armenia. I would like to note that our 102nd Military Base in the territory of Armenia is not deployed here in vain to solely serve as a ‘beauty accessory’,” he stressed.