Armenia is at risk of losing its position as nominal head of a post-Soviet political-military bloc as leaders of the group appear to be leaning toward appointing a non-Armenian as leader.

The bloc, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, held a summit in Astana on November 8 and 9, at which the top agenda item was finding a new secretary general. Because the most recent secretary general, the Armenian Yuri Khachaturov, was formally recalled by Yerevan on November 2. He is being investigated by Armenia’s new authorities as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the crackdown on protests against fraudulent elections in 2008.

In the end, the CSTO heads of state delayed the decision a month; Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev told reporters that the new secretary general will be chosen at another summit on December 6 in St. Petersburg.

Both Yerevan and Minsk appear to have settled on their respective nominees: for Armenia, it’s Vagharshak Harutiunyan, a former defense minister; for Belarus it’s Stanislav Zas, chairman of the National Security Council.

https://eurasianet.org/armenia-appears-in-danger-of-losing-csto-leadership-position