The ruling Civil Contract party’s parliamentary group announced on Thursday the establishment of an ad hoc commission that will examine the causes of Armenia’s defeat in the war, assess the Armenian government’s and military’s actions and look into what had been done for national defense before the hostilities.
The parliamentary majority said it will appoint seven of the eleven members of the commission. The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs were offered to name the four other members.
Both blocs officially rejected the offer on Friday. In a joint statement, they argued that “the authorities cannot objectively investigate their own actions.”
“It is clear that the investigative commission will be engaged in staging the ‘innocence’ of the authorities,” they said.
“Taking into account these and a number of other circumstances, the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem factions decided not to participate in the work of the investigative commission set up by the authorities,” added the statement.
Representatives of Hayastan and Pativ Unem said earlier that such a commission must be headed by an opposition lawmaker and that Civil Contract and the opposition must be equally represented in it.
Armen Khachatrian, a senior Civil Contract lawmaker, deplored the opposition boycott. “They are doing everything to question the legitimacy of the investigative commission,” Khachatrian told reporters.
“They are not interested in taking part in clarifying the objective reality,” he said. “They are interested in continuing to sling mud.”
Virtually all Armenian opposition groups hold Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian responsible for the outcome of the six-week war that left at least 3,800 Armenian soldiers dead.
For his part, Pashinian has blamed former Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, who lead Hayastan and Pativ Unem respectively, for the defeat. Kocharian ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, while Sarkisian, his successor, lost power more than two years before the outbreak of the devastating war.