An Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to give any reason for the rebuff on Friday.
The development comes two months after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian called off a CSTO military exercise that was scheduled to take place in Armenia this year. He again accused the alliance of refusing to defend Armenia against Azerbaijani military attacks in breach of its statutes.
Late last year, Armenia also turned down other CSTO member states’ offer to deploy monitors along its volatile border with Azerbaijan, citing their reluctance to acknowledge and condemn the “Azerbaijani aggression.”
Yerevan appealed to the CSTO for support during the September 2022 border clashes which left at least 224 Armenian soldiers dead. Armenian leaders afterwards accused the alliance of ignoring the appeal in breach of its statutes.
Pashinian went as far as to question on January 11 the need for close military ties between Armenia and Russia. He said that they may be putting his country’s security and territorial integrity at greater risk. The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the claim as “absurd.”
These tensions have fuelled speculation about a pro-Western shift in Armenia’s geopolitical orientation. Armenia’s leading opposition groups are seriously concerned about such a prospect.
Tigran Abrahamian, an opposition parliamentarian, criticized Yerevan’s refusal to fill one of the three posts of CSTO deputy secretary-general. He said Pashinian is thus downgrading Armenia’s membership in the alliance uniting six ex-Soviet states.
“I have the impression that with this step Armenia is starting a process of dissociating itself from the CSTO or giving new impetus to a course that started earlier,” Abrahamian wrote on Facebook.