An Armenian Foreign Ministry official on Monday neither confirmed nor denied that Yerevan may lose a rotating leadership post in a Russian-led defense grouping of several post-Soviet nations.
Last Friday, Yuri Khachaturov was relieved of his duties as secretary-general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
Khachaturov occupied that post since May 2017 as part of a rotating process in the multinational organization. But he was recalled by official Yerevan in July amid charges of overthrowing the country’s constitutional order brought against him as part of a criminal investigation into a 2008 post-election crackdown. Khachaturov served as a deputy defense minister at that time.
The same charges were brought against former President Robert Kocharian, who was accused of ordering the use of the army for the violent repression of the opposition-led protests, in which eight demonstrators and two police officers were killed.
The new candidate for the post is likely to be discussed at a CSTO summit to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, on November 8.
Citing its diplomatic sources in three CSTO-member countries the Russian Kommersant daily reported on Sunday that a Belarus representative may become the new secretary-general of the organization.
The newspaper suggested that the candidate is Stanislav Zas, who currently serves as the state secretary of the Belarus’s Security Council.
Asked on Monday whether Zas’s candidacy is indeed being discussed, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalian said: “The issue of the new CSTO secretary-general is at the stage of consultations. These discussions have some confidential character and are not conducted in the public domain. Respecting this principle, we cannot provide any additional information not to harm these discussions.”
Facebook Forum