The Armenia faction has advocated for the creation of a parliamentary commission to study cases of non-combat deaths in the army and the incident in the village of Shaki.

ArmInfo. The Armenia faction welcomes the initiative of the Strong Armenia faction to create an investigative commission in the National Assembly to look into the increasing number of suicides and deaths of servicemen in the Armenian Armed Forces (AF), as well as the recent incident involving an Azerbaijani serviceman entering the village of Shaki. Artur Khachatryan, a member of the National Assembly from the opposition Armenia faction, stated this in a conversation with journalists in the Armenian parliament on October 6.

According to him, their faction intends to join this initiative. "The situation that has developed today in the army cannot but cause serious concern." "The security environment that exists in the Armed Forces, which results in the deaths of service members, must also receive a political and professional assessment," Khachatryan emphasized.

He recalled that a tragic incident had previously occurred in Kazakhstan, in which 14 sailors were killed during an exercise in one of the country's regions. Following this, as the MP noted, the Kazakh Defense Minister was dismissed. "Meanwhile, in Armenia, Defense Minister Suren Papikyan has shown no intention of resigning, despite the fact that the events that have occurred indicate serious problems in his competence. The incident in Shaki should also be the subject of a detailed discussion. In this case, the issue concerns not only the activities of the Armed Forces, but also the work of the National Security Service and the Armenian Police." Consequently, representatives of these agencies should also receive an appropriate assessment within the framework of the investigation," the opposition member believes.

Khachatryan, however, expressed doubt that the ruling Civil Contract faction would join the opposition's latest initiative. According to him, the ruling party prioritizes its own political interests over national security issues. "If the Civil Contract faction is truly interested in receiving an answer to the question of how an armed Azerbaijani serviceman was able to enter Armenian territory, then it should vote in favor of creating an investigative commission. However, I doubt it. We hope that the commission, even if it works without the participation of the ruling faction, will find evidence and be able to show that the Armenian Defense Minister does not have sufficient competence to fulfill the mission entrusted to him," the MP concluded.

It should be noted that on October 6, at a plenary session of parliament, the secretary of the Strong Armenia faction, Tigran Abrahamyan announced that their political force intends to initiate the creation of another investigative group in parliament to examine border incidents and the situation in the country's armed forces. During the same meeting, Narek Karapetyan, leader of the Strong Armenia opposition faction, stated that Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan is incapable of fulfilling his duties and therefore needs to be replaced.