Pashinyan Proposes Deploying CSTO Monitoring Mission on Border With Azerbaijan

YEREVAN (Sputnik) - Acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday proposed deploying a Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) monitoring mission on the border with Azerbaijan amid a recent surge in tensions.

According to Pashinyan, Azerbaijani armed forces, illegally stationed on Armenian territory at the Sotk-Khoznavar section of the border, are carrying out activities "discrediting the system of the Collective Security Treaty".

"Azerbaijan not only engages in provocative activities but also accuses Armenia of staging provocations. As a member of the CSTO that will take over chairmanship in September, Armenia understands its responsibility to prevent threats to the CSTO security and to prevent our allies' involvement in combat operations. Therefore, I say that any provocative actions by the Armenian armed forces are impossible. To check our mutual accusations with Azerbaijan, a CSTO monitoring mission could be deployed along the entire Armenian-Azerbaijani border", Pashinyan said at a cabinet session.

The prime minister made this statement after three Armenian soldiers were killed on Wednesday amid border clashes, which Yerevan blamed on Azerbaijan. At the same time, Baku reported two injured servicemen and urged the Armenian side to start talks on the "delineation" of the border.

Baku and Yerevan are involved in a decades-long dispute over the Armenian-dominated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which proclaimed its secession from Azerbaijan in 1992. Last September, the frozen conflict reignited, claiming thousands on both sides.

The new round of hostilities only ended in November after Baku and Yerevan signed a truce, mediated by Moscow, but the situation in the region remains tense.