The Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) suspended Armenia’s voting rights on November 11 over unpaid membership fees, following years of disputes over the alliance’s response to Azerbaijani aggression and Nikol Pashinyan’s handling of Armenia’s membership.
Under Article 25 of the CSTO Charter, Armenia also loses the right to nominate representatives to certain positions. However, it remains a formal member and retains its collective security guarantees. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed on November 10 that Pashinyan’s administration had not submitted a withdrawal request.
The dispute dates back to May 2021, when Azerbaijani forces entered Armenia’s sovereign territory. Pashinyan appealed to the CSTO under Article 2, requesting consultations, but did not invoke Article 4, which provides for collective defense assistance. The alliance, meanwhile, characterized the incursion as a border incident and failed to secure the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces.
When Azerbaijan launched a larger offensive against Armenia in September 2022, Pashinyan’s administration invoked Article 4 and requested military assistance. The CSTO dispatched a fact-finding mission but did not provide the requested military support or formally identify Azerbaijan as the aggressor.
The response contrasted with January 2022, when the CSTO rapidly deployed forces to Kazakhstan during domestic unrest, with Pashinyan himself chairing the alliance’s Collective Security Council.
At the November 2022 summit in Yerevan, Pashinyan refused to sign a proposed CSTO assistance package, arguing that it failed to recognize Azerbaijan’s aggression and address the occupation of Armenian territory.
Moscow maintained that the package included political, diplomatic and military measures, including a monitoring mission, and later accused Pashinyan’s administration of rejecting assistance. However, independent fact-checkers identified inaccuracies in parts of Lavrov’s subsequent account, while the full contents of the proposed package remain undisclosed.
Armenia’s Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan claimed the proposal lacked military-technical assistance. The CSTO disputed the suggestion that it offered only observers but declined to reveal the additional measures. Consequently, the extent of the assistance Pashinyan rejected remains unclear.
In February 2024, Pashinyan froze Armenia’s participation in the CSTO and subsequently stopped paying membership fees. By December, he declared that relations had passed the point of no return, yet his administration never initiated formal withdrawal.
The latest decision brings those unresolved contradictions into focus. The CSTO failed to deliver the collective military assistance Armenia requested in 2022, while Pashinyan’s administration declined to invoke collective defense provisions in 2021, later rejected a disputed assistance proposal and continued membership without active participation.
Armenia now remains legally tied to a military alliance in which it has lost its vote, while the security guarantees that underpin its membership have failed to produce the requested military assistance during Azerbaijani attacks.
