12:48, 5 May, 2021

YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. The parliamentary commission investigating the circumstances of the 2016 April War succeeded in finding answers to the main questions and studying important documents, but the picture isn’t complete because one person refused to make an appearance at the hearings, according to Member of Parliament Andranik Kocharyan, the Chair of the Defense and Security Affairs Committee who heads the investigative commission.

Kocharyan told reporters that the commission did an unprecedented work in the history of all parliaments of Armenia. He said that the report is classified but persons having security clearance can have access to all recordings and materials.

 “I think that with time many episodes of the report will be available to the public after being de-classified,” he said. Kocharyan said Speaker of Parliament Ararat Mirzoyan suggested him to publicize the unclassified parts.

Kocharyan says the next phase of the work should involve prosecutors and investigative bodies looking into the report.

“There are many important episodes in the report related to the arsenal, the management, political decisions, as well as shortcomings in decision-making and its reasons,” Kocharyan said.

He said he believes that the 2020 war was the continuation of the 2016 April War, and that they should try to find an answer to the question whether or not there is a connection.

He also mentioned Yuri Khachaturov, the General who served as Chief of General Staff in 2016. According to Kocharyan, Khachaturov is the only person from all summoned ex-officials who refused to attend the hearings. Kocharyan says Khachaturov’s testimony would’ve completed the “puzzle”.

Asked by reporters to clarify what they were trying to find out from Khachaturov, the MP said: “What he’d said in Moscow”.

“I find our biggest shortcoming to be the non-attendance of one person,” he said, describing Khachaturov’s refusal as “mysterious.”

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan