ArmInfo. The pro-government faction "Civil Contract" once again rejected the opposition's initiative to form a permanent parliamentary commission on Artsakh in the country's legislative body.
So, today, on September 10, the parliamentary opposition represented by the "Armenia" and "I Have the Honor" blocs again proposed to form a commission that will promote issues supporting the interests of Artsakh.
Lawmaker from the Armenia bloc Aghvan Vardanyan, presenting the arguments in favor of the creation of such a commission, stressed that the formation of the above commission will become a kind of message for Armenia's neighbors, in particular, it will make it clear to Baku that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue continues to be a priority for Armenia. Expressing his conviction of the relevance of the creation of such a commission in today's realities, he was indignant that its creation was being rejected under various far- fetched pretexts.
Vardanyan also stressed that he does not share the opinion of the ruling majority that the new commission, in fact, will repeat the functions of a number of other - already operating commissions, in particular, the permanent parliamentary commission on foreign relations.
In general, representatives of the opposition forces very fiercely defended this idea, but it did not find support from the ruling forces, which are convinced that there is no need to create such a commission.
By the way, MP Vigen Khachatryan recalled that the National Assemblies of Armenia and Artsakh fully cooperate and interact within the framework of an interdepartmental commission specially created for these purposes, which is obliged to organize meetings of parliamentarians of the two Armenian republics at least 2 times a year. The creation of a permanent commission, according to Khachatryan and a number of other lawmakers representing the ruling majority, will diminish the importance of the interdepartmental commission and bilateral cooperation. However, he ignored the fact that the interdepartmental commission was not authorized to represent the interests of Artsakh on international platforms. Meanwhile, the creation of such a commission would allow promoting the interests of Artsakh, including on international platforms. In total, after heated discussions, the ruling majority rejected this initiative. Thus, four lawmakers supported the initiative, and seven abstained.
Note that this is not the first time the opposition has attempted to create a commission on Artsakh issues in the Armenian parliament. However, so far their attempts have not been crowned with success due to the reluctance of the ruling force to support this initiative, which, under various pretexts, refuses to vote "for" the initiative.