CSTO Says Group 'Committed' To Armenia Defense

YEREVAN -- The Collective Security Treaty Organization's (CSTO) secretary-general has said that in the event of an Azerbaijani attack against Armenian forces over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan could count on CSTO military support, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

Nikolai Bordyuzha said during a videoconference with journalists on August 7 that "aggression against one of the organization's member states is aggression against all member states."

Bordyuzha said he was quoting from the CSTO treaty's Article 4.

Tevan Poghosian, the chairman of the pro-NATO Armenian Atlantic Association, told RFE/RL that the article "has never been tested in practice" and "I wouldn't put much trust into it."

Bordyuzha also praised the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Minsk Group's recent resolution efforts on Nagorno-Karabakh and said everything "testifies" to a "peaceful resolution of the conflict."

Armenian forces took over the Karabakh region in Azerbaijan after a six-year war that ended in 1994.

The CSTO is made up of Russia and six other former Soviet republics -- Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan -- and was established in 2002.