Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 20 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
Kazakhstan will be able to cope with the situation in the Zhanaozen city, where mass riots took place, and there is no need for CSTO's assistance to resolve it, RIA Novosti quotes CSTO General Secretary Nikolai Bordyuzha as saying.
"There is no need for additional collective mechanisms ... I think the Kazakh leadership controls the situation," Bordyuzha said.
On Friday mass riots took place in the Kazakh oil town of Zhanaozen in the Mangistau region which killed 14 and injured about 90 people. President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree to impose a state of emergency in the area from Saturday. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, situation in the Zhanaozen city is gradually stabilizing.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in turn, ruled out the possibility of use of the CSTO collective forces in Kazakhstan.
"It is not envisaged in our charter," Lavrov said.
"In any case, the Collective Security Treaty Organization can assist member countries to resist any situations only following a request of the state represented by its president," Lavrov added.
The Collective Security Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance of Post-soviet countries. It was created in 1992. The CSTO charter reaffirmed the desire of all participant countries to abstain from using 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 considered as an aggression against all. CSTO members are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.