By the decree of Defense Minister, colonel Arakel Martikyan was appointed as a representative of Armenia’s armed forces at the country’s permanent mission to CSTO, Defense Ministry press service said.

All the provisions of the Charter of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) apply to Armenia, as a CSTO member, and in case of a military strike against Armenia, these norms will come into force, director general of the Institute for Caspian Cooperation Sergei Mikheev said when commenting on Azerbaijan’s threats to use force against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed on May 15, 1992. The CSTO employs a "rotating presidency" system in which the country leading the CSTO alternates every year.