On December 5, the President of the Armenian Parliament, Alen Simonyan, delivered a speech at the joint meeting of the Council and the 15th Plenary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the press office of the Parliament reported.

In his voluminous speech, Simonyan touched upon several topics, ranging from the Organization's parliamentary cooperation to the region's military-political situation, including the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

Referring to the parliamentary cooperation of the CSTO, he mentioned the necessity to coordinate the legislative work by adopting model acts and elaborating the proposals on the large scope of issues. Alen Simonyan underlined that since the last meeting, the military-political situation in South Caucasus has deteriorated, and some events still disrupt the stability and regional security. In this context, he detailed the military actions carried out by the Azerbaijani armed forces against the sovereign territory of Armenia and the bellicose rhetoric of the official Baku, which, as he states, testifies to the further expansionist aspirations of Azerbaijan.

The Parliamentary speaker highlighted the importance of military and political support of the CSTO, particularly in two dimensions: a clear political assessment of the Organization on the Azerbaijani aggression of September this year and the adoption of the roadmap for the restoration of the Armenian territorial integrity.

Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Simonyan underlined: “Today, our major task is to protect the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has recently demanded that Russian peacekeepers not use the name Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenian place names. Furthermore, we can see that Azerbaijan is preparing the ground for closing the Lachin corridor. The Lachin corridor is the only corridor of humanitarian importance for the life-support of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians.”