Pashinyan says he would be “very glad” if Armenia were expelled from the CSTO. Peskov responds that...

Pashinyan said he would be “very glad” if Armenia were expelled from the CSTO. Peskov responded by saying that Yerevan is “free to leave” the organization

The country’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, noted that he would be “very glad” if the Collective Security Treaty Organization itself decided to expel Armenia from the bloc.

“In any case, this would free us from the dilemma of whether to leave or not,” he said.

Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the statement, said that Yerevan is “free to leave” the organization if it “no longer needs, by virtue of its national interests, membership in such an important organization for ensuring regional security.”

He also added that Armenia had previously only announced a freeze of its membership in the organization and had not planned to leave.

As for the process of submitting an application for Armenia to join the EU, Peskov advised Armenia to recall the experience of Turkey and “other countries,” “since whose applications were submitted, decades have already passed.”

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