Aggressor or security guarantor

Today, a protest rally was held at Freedom Square demanding Armenia’s withdrawal from the CSTO. Members of the European Party of Armenia marched from the Opera House toward Proshyan Street, to the residence of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, from where the prime minister was supposed to depart to welcome the President of the Russian Federation.

With placards reading “Putin out of Armenia,” “No place for terrorists here!”, and carrying the flags of Ukraine, the European Union, and the United States, protesters gathered to oppose the CSTO summit that began today in Yerevan. Presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan also arrived in Yerevan today to participate in the summit.

“Since the 1990s, in exchange for our security guarantees, we have given Russia everything imaginable—energy infrastructure, the railway, monopolies, and even joined the Eurasian Economic Union, which was not economically beneficial to us at all,” said rally participant Sipan Zargaryan, a member of the European Party of Armenia, who represented the party’s youth wing today.

“In September 2020, unfortunately, the day came when we truly needed the security guarantees that our entire nation had paid for, but instead of security, we received betrayal. Russia effectively provided political support to Azerbaijan,” declared from the stage Tigran Khzmalyan, founder of the European Party of Armenia.

It should be recalled that according to Article 4 of the Collective Security Treaty, aggression against any member state is considered aggression against all CSTO countries. Nevertheless, no military assistance was provided to Armenia by the CSTO.

Dozens of Russians who have relocated to Armenia and temporarily settled there since the beginning of the war also joined the protest. One of them, 27-year-old Dmitry, said that he follows with admiration the activities of certain opposition parties in Armenia, including the European Party, their ideology, and their courage in how they consistently fight against authoritarian regimes—in both Russia and Armenia.

Later, it became known that the police detained four individuals on Paronyan Street in Yerevan, including the leader of the European Party of Armenia, Tigran Khzmalyan.

The police press service has not yet commented on the reasons for detaining the organizers of the protest. The police department also refused to provide any information to Tigran Khzmalyan’s lawyer. This was reported by party member Sipan Zargaryan.