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Yerevan Likely To Recall CSTO Chief After He Was Charged At Home


Yuri Khachaturov
Yuri Khachaturov

(RFE/RL) - Armenia says it may recall Yuri Khachaturov, the head of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty (CSTO), from his post, after he was charged earlier this year with overthrowing Armenia’s constitutional order when he was deputy defense minister.

The CSTO is a Moscow-based regional security grouping that includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

President Armen Sarkissian, on a visit to Belarus, told journalists on November 1 that “a certain judicial process is going on” to relieve Khachaturov of his CSTO post.

“Taking into account the fact that he [Khachaturov] represents the Republic of Armenia, Armenia has a right, in principle, to decide if its representative can or cannot stay on as the [CSTO] secretary-general. It looks like Armenia will recall him,” Sarkissian said.

Khachaturov was officially charged in July of involvement in the “overthrowing of Armenia’s constitutional order” during an investigation into the crackdown that followed a disputed March 2008 presidential election.

The same charges were brought against former President Robert Kocharian, who was accused of ordering the use of the army for the violent repression of the protests, in which eight demonstrators and two police officers were killed.

Khachaturov, who is 66, was born in Georgia and was chief of the General Staff of the Armenian armed forces from 2008 to 2016. At the time of the protests, he was also deputy defense minister.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax

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