99% of CSTO’s warning came true: Why did Nikol Pashinyan ignore them?

27.12.2020. EADaily.

According to Armenia’s former ambassador to the Vatican, Mikayel Minasyan, the Armenian authorities received a classified document from the CSTO just 26 days before the outbreak of the most recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The document reportedly contained a warning about the imminent conflict and its expected nature, along with a recommendation to formally request assistance from allied states in order to prevent it.

“Just 26 days before the war broke out, CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas sent a letter to the Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, along with a package of documents proposing joint military exercises within the CSTO framework,” Minasyan claims. “The exercise scenario outlined the war Armenia was to prepare for and urged the country to appeal to the CSTO for assistance before hostilities began.”

According to Minasyan, the letter stated that terrorist networks had been operating covertly in Armenia since 2019 and were prepared to launch information and military terrorist attacks during the war. It also noted that the military balance had shifted in Azerbaijan’s favor since 2018, and that ceding certain positions in Nakhijevan had “created strategic problems for the security of Armenia and Artsakh.”

“The document outlined that Armenia had already been losing the information and diplomatic war for two years and was heading toward an inglorious defeat. It stated that, given the existing challenges, Armenia and Artsakh would face not only Azerbaijan but also Turkey, which would enlist terrorists from Syria,” Minasyan said, adding that Pashinyan “knew what was going to happen.”

“The letter and the attached documents were a diplomatic warning that came true by almost 99%. It was a direct message to Armenia’s intelligence leadership: appeal to the CSTO, because this is going to happen, and you won’t be able to handle it,” Minasyan said.

 

It should be recalled that throughout the 44-day war, Nikol Pashinyan was urged from all sides to appeal to the CSTO, yet he reached out to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, with a proposal to begin consultations only at the last moment—when it was already too late.

Source: EADaily