https://eng.belta.by/president/view/sincere-discussion-and-fitting-proposals-what-lukashenko-talked-about-during-csto-online-summit-154266-2022/
“The issue is very sensitive and delicate. It is not like the CSTO and we, CSTO members are on one side while Azerbaijan is on the other side. The two countries are friendly to us. Yes, indeed, they were part of one country. But moreover, we are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States together with Azerbaijan and Armenia. We have very tight ties with Armenia, which is a Christian Orthodox country and close to us. And with the Islamic state of Azerbaijan, which is very close to us. It is a particularly sensitive issue for other CSTO members, including the Russian Federation where 30 million Muslims live. In other words, all the nuances, all the factors need to be taken into account,” the Belarusian leader stresse
Aleksandr Lukashenko went on saying: “And after all, is Azerbaijan some enemy or adversary for all the heads of state and countries present here? It is not. I confirm President Putin's words that Armenia and Azerbaijan are kindred countries for us. It is a peculiarity of the situation. We cannot but take it into account.”
The president believes one must not look at the problem by saying there is the Collective Security Treaty Organization and “Are you with us or not?” on one side and Azerbaijan is on the other side. “It is incorrect. Today Azerbaijan is headed by absolutely our kind of a person – Ilham Aliyev. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow (he cannot live forever after all). This is why the acute issues raised by Nikol Vovayevich [Pashinyan] truly need to be addressed now. While Azerbaijan's current leadership is still in place,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stated. “Regardless of whoever backs Azerbaijan. They say Türkiye does and so on. So what? It is politics. Turks support Azerbaijan because the two countries are close and kindred.”
