CSTO secretariat reflected to Armenia-Azerbaijan border incident

The CSTO secretariat has commented on numerous media reports on the organization and noted that “the reports are rather not objective in nature and sometimes false.”

Specifically, as mentioned in CSTO spokesman Vladimir Zaynetdinov’s statement, media have drawn great attention to the December 29, 2016 incident on the ArmenianAzerbaijani border.

“Earlier the CSTO secretariat issued a clarification of the content of Bordyuzha’s comments, where attention was drawn on the fact that the Secretary General of the organization has expressed serious concern and special alarm that the incident occurred on the border of a CSTO member state. In terms of the issue of the NK conflict settlement, we have to note that the stance of CSTO is reflected in the announcement of the heads of states of member states, which was adopted during the October 14, 2016 Yerevan sitting of the Collective Security Council. The secretariat is consistently and steadily following that stance in its work,” the statement said.

“At the same time we find it unacceptable to link Bordyuzha’s resignation with the December 29 incident’s comment, because his responsibilities as Secretary General expired on December 31, 2016 – in accordance with the decision of heads of states, which was adopted in the December 2015 Moscow sitting of the Collective Security Council,” the document reads.

Regarding the appointment of a new Secretary General the organization is guided by the same decision of the Collective Security Council and agreements of heads of states, which were adopted during the Moscow sitting of December 2015, which specifically state, “Appoint the Secretary General with a three-year term, at the presentation of CSTO foreign ministers’ council, from the number of member state citizens, on a rotation basis, in accordance to their names in the Russian alphabet.”

“The CSTO secretariat has no information regarding any changes in the decision or the agreements,” the statement says. It also mentions that the CSTO secretariat “intends to continue productive cooperation with mass media and urges to objectively cover events regarding the activities of the CSTO.”