The Armenian National Assembly today announced the formation of an inquiry committee to “study the circumstances of the military actions unleashed on 27 September 2020”; i.e., the 44-day Artsakh war.

The Armenia parliament states that the Standing Committee on Defense and Security will carry out the powers of the committee consisting of eleven members – seven from the ruling Civil Contract faction and four from the opposition.

Standing Committee on Defense and Security Chairman Antranik Kocharyan will head the inquiry committee.

Armenia’s opposition With Honor parliamentary faction immediately announced that it would not participate in the fact-finding commission.

Faction MP Tigran Abrahamyan, who serves on the parliament’s Standing Committee on Defense and Security, told Hetq today that the government seeks to whitewash the entire matter and turn the page on the war.

Abrahamyan said the inquiry committee will consist of MPs and not expert investigators. He said any commission looking into the war and Armenia’s military defeat, must be headed by law enforcement agencies.

Last August, Abrahamyan told Hetq that he believes the fact-finding commission proposed by the government to investigate the 2020 Karabakh war will attempt to absolve PM Nikol Pashinyan of any responsibility for the Armenian military defeat and will blame the armed forces, individual commanders and soldiers instead.

Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party proposed the idea of a war inquiry commission in July 2021.

Disagreements as to the commission’s make-up have plagued the process since.

The opposition Hayastan parliamentary faction hasn’t announced whether it will participate in the commission.