Wednesday, May 5 2021 13:47

ArmInfo.The parliamentary commission to investigate the causes of the April 2016 war in Artsakh gave answers to many questions that society and the authorities had  in connection with those events. On May 5, in an interview with  reporters, Andranik Kocharyan, Chairman of the Standing Committee of  the National Assembly of Armenia on Defense and Security, said this  after hearing the report of the commission to investigate the causes  of the April 2016 war in Artsakh in the country's parliament behind  closed doors.

At the same time, he added that many facts were recorded, however,  the results of the work cannot be made public, due to the content of  state secrets in the document. However, Kocharyan assured that over  time, episodes will gradually be released that will lose the term of  secrecy and will be available to citizens. "The value of the report  is precisely in this - we received a lot of notes, maps, evidence of  decisions, including political ones, omissions, actions of the  command, etc. I believe that the investigating authorities could not  have received as many answers as we received. Only one person refused  to participate in the work of the commission and give answers to the  questions of interest to us - this is General Yuri Khachaturov  (ex-head of the General Staff of the RA AF - ed.), "Kocharyan said.

To clarify what questions remained unanswered due to Khachaturov's  refusal to participate in the work of the commission, the lawmaker  noted that the agenda of his talks in Moscow remained unknown. At the  same time, Kocharyan believes that it is necessary to continue  activities in order to understand whether there was a relationship  between the 4-day April 2016 escalation and the last 44-day war.

When asked whether the commission received an answer to the question  of who won this 4-day war, Kocharian said in particular: "Serzh  Sargsyan says that he defeated Ilham Aliyev. But, in fact, we have a  violation of the ceasefire of 1994 and a violation of the demarcation  borders (apparently implies the line of contact of troops - ed.), the  loss of 20 positions. With few resources, using the knowledge of the  military, we were able to find answers to many questions. "

He also called the commission's biggest omission that it was not  possible to interrogate Yuri Khachaturov.  Kocharyan also said that  they were looking for omissions within the framework of this  commission, not conspirators, while assuring that all perpetrators  would certainly be punished and the relevant structures (Defense  Ministry, National Security Service, Foreign Ministry) should have  access to this closed document.

In conclusion, the lawmaker from the ruling force assured that, if  necessary, the consequences of the 44- day war would be studied,  however, this should be done not in the political plane, but in the  legal one.  Note that the parliamentary commission to investigate the  circumstances of the April war in Karabakh was established in June  2019. The commission was headed by the head of the permanent  parliamentary commission on defense and security, a lawmaker from the  "My Step" faction Andranik Kocharian. The Commission includes  representatives of all factions of the National Assembly. The purpose  of its work was to identify possible mistakes, shortcomings or  inaction on the part of the then authorities in the above- mentioned  period of aggravation of the situation on the border, which led to  the death of over 100 Armenian servicemen.