Opinion: «Mass refugee influx is a threat for Armenia and other CSTO members»

CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha has said recently that the CSTO countries should be prepared for a possible influx of refugees “extruded” from Europe. “You see what is happening in Europe today: some countries are “squeezing” refugees from their territories through legislative and institutional measures. We do consider that after some time the flow of migrants will be at our borders. We must be prepared for it,” announced Bordyuzha after the CSTO session in Minsk. The migration issues within the CSTO and abroad have always been the focus of the military organization, — says military expert Alexander Sobyanin, member of the board of experts of the Russian «Center for Strategic Studies», head of the strategic planning service at the Association of Cross-Border Cooperation.

“Europe wants to redirect aggressive refugees to the CSTO countries, so the CSTO shows that it has already taken measures to prevent their penetration into the military block. This is a concrete message for Europe indicating that they can not solve the problem of refugees by Russia and its allies,” told RUSARMINFO Alexander Sobyanin. According to the expert, the refugees, many of whom are former and current militants, threaten the security of the CSTO member states, including Armenia. “The smaller the country’s territory, the easier it is to destabilize it. Predominantly, among those refugees are men between 16 and 45 years old. Children, women and old people comprise a minority. If the country has no mechanism to deal with migration issues, then it becomes a real security threat. Russia is the only country protected from such a threat,” said Alexander Sobyanin. Referring to his words, the armed groups will follow those refugees, who are a source of civil disobedience. Moreover, the common border between Armenia and Turkey is a threat in terms of mass infiltrations by Islamic militants in Armenia. The number of refugees arrived in Europe from the beginning of 2016 has amounted to more than 67 thousand people, reports the International Organization for Migration (IOM). In 2015, according to the organization, more than 1 million people got to the European shores by sea. Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have established temporary border controls for a period of six months.