The lawmaker, Andranik Kocharian, heads an ad hoc commission of the National Assembly that was set up in February 2022 with the stated aim of examining the causes of Armenia’s defeat in the war, assessing the Armenian government’s and military’s actions and looking into what had been done for national defense before the hostilities. Opposition lawmakers have boycotted the commission, saying that its primary mission is to whitewash Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s wartime incompetence and disastrous decision making.
Kocharian formally submitted a report on the commission’s findings to Simonian a month ago. It was expected to be released and debated during this week’s plenary session of the parliament.
However, the speaker unexpectedly blocked the discussion, saying that the panel breached an 18-month limit on its activities set by the parliament’s statutes. Kocharian insists that he did not miss any legal deadlines.
Simonian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday that he will be able to present the report during a parliamentary hearing to be held behind the closed doors. Kocharian essentially dismissed this proposal and insisted on the report’s inclusion on the parliament agenda.
“The law requires that the report must be presented at a plenary session,” he said. “If a different way is chosen, it means the report does not exist.”
Some Armenian commentators have questioned the official explanation for Simonian’s decision. They have suggested that Pashinian does not want to see a renewed public debate on his handling of the war even if Kocharian’s commission will almost certainly absolve him of any blame for its outcome.
Virtually all opposition groups hold Pashinian responsible for the six-week hostilities that left at least 3,800 Armenian soldiers dead. Pashinian gave them more ammunition in late August when he admitted rejecting in 2019 a Karabakh peace plan jointly drafted by the United States. Russia and France. The premier claimed that its implementation would have led to the “loss of Armenia’s independence and statehood.”