Armenian, Kazakh leaders discussed CSTO peacekeepers’ withdrawal from Kazakhstan

YEREVAN, January 13. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a telephone conversation with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Thursday, Pashinyan’s press service said.

It said the Kazakh president briefed Pashinyan on the stabilization of the situation in the country. In this context, they discussed the completion of the CSTO peacekeeping mission in Kazakhstan and the process of troops withdrawal.

“The peacekeeping mission of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) demonstrated the organization’s highly efficient and real potential,’ CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas said at a ceremony of wrapping up the bloc’s peacekeeping operation in the Central Asian republic held in Almaty on Thursday.

Protests erupted in several Kazakh cities on January 2, escalating into mass riots with government buildings getting ransacked in several cities a few days later. The ensuing violence left thousands of people injured, with fatalities also being reported.

Subsequently, Kazakh President Tokayev turned to the Collective Security Treaty Organization requesting assistance from the Russia-led bloc. As a result, peacekeepers were deployed to Kazakhstan. The country declared a state of emergency from January 5. Law and order, Kazakh authorities affirm, was restored to all of the country’s regions. -0-