Editing Armed Forces of Armenia (section)

=== Collective Security Treaty Organisation ===
{{See also|Armenia–CSTO relations}}
On 7 October 2002, the Presidents of [[Armenia]], [[Belarus]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], [[Russia]] and [[Tajikistan]], signed a charter in [[Tashkent]], founding the [[Collective Security Treaty Organisation]] (CSTO) (Russian: Организация Договора о Коллективной Безопасности (ОДКБ/ODKB)) or simply Ташкентский договор (The [[Tashkent Treaty]]). [[Nikolai Bordyuzha]] was appointed secretary general of the new organisation. On 23 June 2006, [[Uzbekistan]] became a full participant in the CSTO and its membership was formally ratified by its parliament on 28 March 2008.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140227124643/http://www.eurasianhome.org/ eurasianhome.org] Access date: 24 December 2014 (Archive date 27 February 2014)</ref> Furthermore, the CSTO is an observer organisation at the [[United Nations General Assembly observers|United Nations General Assembly]].

The charter reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force. Signatories would not be able to join other military alliances or other groups of states, while aggression against one signatory would be perceived as an aggression against all. To this end, the CSTO holds yearly military command exercises for the CSTO nations to have an opportunity to improve inter-organisation cooperation. The largest-scale CSTO military exercise held, to date, were the "Rubezh 2008" exercises hosted in [[Armenia]] where a combined total of 4,000 troops from all 7 constituent CSTO member countries conducted operative, strategic, and tactical training with an emphasis towards furthering the efficiency of the collective security element of the CSTO partnership.<ref>[http://www.pims.org/news/2008/08/06/rubezh-2008-the-first-large-scale-csto-military-exercise] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210230833/http://www.pims.org/news/2008/08/06/rubezh-2008-the-first-large-scale-csto-military-exercise|date=10 February 2009}}</ref>

The Ministry of Defense of Armenia has repeatedly stated that it would expect direct military assistance from the CSTO in case war with Azerbaijan resumes, as recently as December 2009, Defense Minister Ohanyan made the same statement. In August 2009, Nikolay Bordyuzha, the CSTO's secretary-general, confirmed that official [[Yerevan]] can count on such support.<ref name="asbarez.com"/>

On 4 February 2009, an agreement to create the Collective Rapid Reaction Force (KSOR) was reached by five of the seven CSTO members, with plans finalized on 14 June 2009. Armenia is one of the five member states. The force is intended to be used to repulse military aggression, conduct [[anti-terrorist]] operations, fight [[transnational crime]] and [[drug trafficking]], and neutralize the effects of [[natural disaster]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thefastertimes.com/defensespending/2009/10/30/with-russian-prodding-csto-begins-taking-shape/|title=With Russian Prodding, CSTO Begins Taking Shape|work=The Faster Times|access-date=24 December 2014|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224155135/http://www.thefastertimes.com/defensespending/2009/10/30/with-russian-prodding-csto-begins-taking-shape/|archive-date=24 December 2014}}</ref>