Azerbaijani Politicians Consider Azerbaijan's Entry into CSTO Unreal

Baku / 16.08.18 / Turan: Participation of Azerbaijan in the CSTO military alliance together with Armenia occupying its territory is impossible. The question of Azerbaijan's accession can be considered after the liberation of the occupied territories and the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

Such an opinion was expressed by the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Tofig Zulfugarov, commenting on Turan's request about the recent statements in the media that Azerbaijan can consider its possible participation in the CSTO.

However, Zulfugarov considers such proposals to be far from reality. The reason for this is the position of the Russian Federation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. According to him, the position of Russia, more precisely, of some of its circles, leads to the fact that the conflict cannot be resolved. The Russian security umbrella allows Armenia to speak at the talks from a radical position and this does not allow progress in the negotiations. Thus, according to Zulfugarov, it is impossible for Azerbaijan to participate in a military organization together with the aggressor state.

If it is a question of closer cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia in the field of security and defense, Moscow must radically change its position and openly declare this.

How possible is Azerbaijan's accession to the CSTO, while the country participates in the Non-Aligned Movement and maintains close military ties with Turkey, a NATO member?

Answering this question, Zulfugarov said Azerbaijan's membership in the CSTO is impossible. However, cooperation is possible, and in particular in areas that meet the interests of Azerbaijan. Baku has military cooperation at the bilateral level with the Russian Federation, as well as with other CSTO members - Kazakhstan and Belarus.

As for Azerbaijan's full accession to the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Zulfugarov believes this issue can be considered only after the liberation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

According to Zulfugarov, statements about the possibility of Azerbaijan's entry into the CSTO represent the point of view of a certain political spectrum of the country.

The use of such statements is that they seem to be a message: if positive actions are taken towards Azerbaijan, Baku can take counter steps, Zulfugarov said.

Without the participation in the CSTO, Azerbaijan supports close cooperation with Russia, but this did not lead to progress in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

This opinion was expressed by the scientist-historian, chairman of the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) Jamil Hasanli.

As Hasanli noted, Azerbaijan in recent years has been one of the countries that have the closest ties with Russia in the economic and military-technical spheres.

At the same time, Hasanli pointed out that Azerbaijan acquired arms for $ 4 billion from Russia, more than any CSTO country.

"However, in fact, there are no results. There is not a single step forward in the resolution of the Karabakh problem. This problem continues for 25 years and Russia played a role in its emergence," said the NCDF head.

If a policy does not give results for 5 years, then it can be reviewed. If there are no results for 10 years, then it must be abandoned.

"From this point of view, it makes no sense to deepen the policy, which has been fruitless for 25 years," Hasanli said.

The chairman of the National Revival Movement Party, MP Faraj Guliyev is also against Azerbaijan's entry into the Collective Security Treaty Organization, of which Russia is a leading participant.

According to him, it was Russia that created the state called "Armenia" on the historical lands of Azerbaijan, committed the January tragedy of 1990 and was involved in the Khojaly tragedy.

"Now Russia has created a joint army with Armenia and can conduct joint military operations with it. Therefore, Azerbaijan cannot be in the CSTO," Guliyev said.

Recently, the expert community and the Azerbaijani media have begun to make suggestions about the possibility of joining the CSTO.

These proposals are supported by some members of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. Thus, its representative, the head of the Parliamentary Committee for Legal Policy and State Building Issues, member of the Milli Majlis group for relations with the RF, Ali Huseynli, in an interview with Haqqin.az today announced the expediency of considering the issue of Azerbaijan's participation in the CSTO. -05 / 03B06--