Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has announced that Armenia has passed ‘the point of no return’ in regards to the country’s possible return to the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). 

Pashinyan’s statement was made during a parliamentary session Wednesday evening after an MP requested he address a recent statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the lack of CSTO intervention in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

‘The discrepancy between these events and their now public mutual expression makes the return of the Republic of Armenia to the CSTO increasingly difficult, if not impossible. I believe we have crossed the point of no return,’ Pashinyan said.

Last week, during a CSTO summit in Kazakhstan, which Armenia did not participate in, Putin claimed that the CSTO had nothing to do with the developments in Nagorno-Karabakh and further insisted that ‘there was no aggression against Armenia’, and therefore no legal reason for launching CSTO’s protection clause. 

The statement caused outrage in Armenia, with local fact-checkers quickly debunking the claims.

[Read more: Outrage in Armenia over Putin’s controversial statement on CSTO]

During Wednesday’s address, Pashinyan further refuted Putin’s statement, noting that the Armenian side ‘did not address the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in the context of freezing our participation in the CSTO’.

Armenia ‘froze’ its membership in the CSTO in February, citing the refusal of the alliance to aid Armenia in the face of Azerbaijani attacks on Armenia in 2021 and 2022.

Pashinyan also commented on another of Putin’s statements, which suggested that Armenia might return to the CSTO, considering that the county ‘supports all the documents that were adopted during our meeting today and during the negotiations’.

‘We simply do not veto any document because, in fact, we already consider ourselves outside the CSTO. Let them decide whatever they want. We do not interfere in their affairs, and this is out of respect for our partners,’ Pashinyan said in response. 

He also underscored that the Armenian side upheld ‘all our allied obligations accurately,’ unlike other members.

‘In a difficult moment, they left us alone, they abandoned us, and yes, there are opinions that we were betrayed, and I have no argument to assure them otherwise,’ Pashinyan stated. 

Earlier on Wednesday, the Secretary General of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov, again expressed hope that Yerevan would continue its work in the organisation, based on the fact that ‘Armenia is our ally and all our obligations towards Armenia remain in place’.

However, Pashinyan reiterated that they ‘are very clearly, very consistently moving in a very specific direction’. 

Pashinyan’s statements come against the backdrop of Armenia diversifying its political and economic ties away from Russia.

On Wednesday, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan met with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, in Malta during the OSCE ministerial conference. During the meeting, the two discussed the main components of the Armenia-EU partnership agenda.  

‘EU-Armenia cooperation is strengthening across all sectors, from security and resilience to democratic reforms,’ Kallas posted on X after the meeting.