Belarus supplied modern military equipment to Azerbaijan in 2018-2022, even though it was Armenia's partner in the CSTO.
Points of attention
- Lukashenka's decision to help the sworn enemy of Armenia affected the geopolitical situation in the region.
- Armenia is looking for protection in Europe and NATO after the rejection of the CSTO and the growing influence of Azerbaijan.
- The supply of weapons from Belarus was also a partial reason for Armenia's withdrawal from the military alliance.
Lukashenko secretly transferred weapons to Azerbaijan
According to the publication, Belarus supplied advanced weapons to Azerbaijan, Armenia's sworn enemy, even though the two countries were allies in a Russian-led defence pact.
The files shed new light on Armenia's decision this week to announce its withdrawal from the military alliance, a dramatic turn that will weaken Russian President Vladimir Putin's authority among the former Soviet Union.
Armenia is now on the verge of a historic turn towards the West, increasingly turning to Europe and NATO for protection after decades of relying on Moscow for the former Soviet republic.
The decision by Belarus, a staunch ally of Russia, to supply Azerbaijan with advanced military equipment between 2018 and 2022, giving it an advantage in a war with its old rival, will be seen as a betrayal by Armenia.
Belarus and Armenia are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a post-Soviet military alliance led by Moscow and created in 2002. Theoretically, members are obliged to protect each other in case of attack. Azerbaijan left the bloc's predecessor in 1999.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has announced that his government will begin the process of withdrawing from the bloc, saying its members "are not fulfilling their treaty obligations, but are planning a war against us and Azerbaijan."
Eduard Arakelyan, a military analyst at the Yerevan Regional Center for Democracy and Security, confirmed that the leaked documents related to equipment used by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Formally, this is a complete violation of the CSTO alliance, but in practice we have always known that the bloc supports Azerbaijan more, Arakelyan said.
Neither the Azerbaijani nor the Belarusian governments responded to requests for comment.
What preceded it
Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly said that the CSTO did not fulfil its obligations to Yerevan during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which resulted in Azerbaijan regaining its territories. Because of this, Armenia took a course to distance itself from Russia.
In May 2024, Pashinyan stated that at least two CSTO member states actually helped Azerbaijan prepare for the Second Karabakh War. And already in June, he noted that the CSTO members did not fulfill their obligations and "planned a war against us together with Azerbaijan."
In addition, the day before, Pashinyan stated that neither he nor any other official representative of Armenia would ever visit Belarus while Aleksandr Lukashenko ruled the country. This happened after Lukashenko publicly supported Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at a meeting in May. In response, Belarus recalled its ambassador to Armenia, and Yerevan did the same.
