By Ani Avetisyan
YEREVAN (OC-media.org) — The Armenian government, which came to power through anti-government street protests in 2018, has agreed to send troops to help quell anti-government protests in Kazakhstan as part of a joint ‘peacekeeping mission’.
On Wednesday night, January 5, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) would send forces to Kazakhstan ‘for a limited time’ to ‘normalize and stabilize’ the situation.
Armenia has held the rotating chair of the Russian-led military bloc since September 2021.
In the announcement, Pashinyan claimed, without evidence, that the protests across Kazakhstan were the result of ‘external intervention’.
According to reports, dozens of protesters and 12 police officers have died in clashes between protesters and security forces in Kazakhstan, while hundreds have been wounded. The protests erupted on 4 January against an increase in gas prices, however, protesters’ demands quickly expanded to include political reforms.
