Former Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, in an interview with Hetq, claimed that the newly announced 2020 Artsakh war inquiry committee will merely parrot the government line and divert attention from the real reasons for the Armenian defeat.

Ohanyan, who served as defense minister from 2008 to 2016, now heads the opposition parliamentary Hayastan faction. It and the With Honor faction today announced they will boycott the committee. Four of the eleven committee seats are reserved for the opposition.  

When asked if it would be better for the opposition to participate in the committee’s work, despite its reservations to the contrary, Ohanyan said it’s necessary to first understand what exactly the committee is tasked with investigating.

“It is necessary to get acquainted in depth with the issues that are put before the commission of inquiry, because superficial points are written in the presented proposal that dovetail with the idea of ​​creating a committee in the first place,” Ohanyan said.

The former defense minister said that the government has done nothing to address what led to the Armenian military defeat since it proposed the formation of the inquiry committee fifteen months ago.

“It’s done nothing because the government would have to had evaluated itself. How would they have done this,” Ohanyan asked.

Ohanyan said this means that the government has formed the inquiry committee merely to place all accountability on former leaders and to justify what took place during the 2020 war. 

“Wasn’t it the government who said whatever happens we will not feel defeated? Wasn’t the government handing out medals to generals and handing out national hero awards left and right during the war,” he asked, agreeing that many received such awards unjustly while those responsible for the military defeat have yet been investigated.

Ohanyan argued that the committee will include sector specialists who worked in the public administration system and thus cannot be regarded as impartial.

Ohanyan said the inquiry committee’s make-up is too small to tackle to assess such a comprehensive issue. He said that committee’s leadership and MPs serving during the war must also be grilled about their functions prior to and during the war.

Standing Committee on Defense and Security Chairman Antranik Kocharyan will head the inquiry committee. Kocharyan, a member of the ruling Civil Contract faction, has chaired the standing committee since 2019.

Ohanyan also criticized the Pashinyan government for shelving the entire Karabakh negotiation process and starting from scratch, resulting in the war and its tragic outcome. 

“They can now say many things about the negotiation process. In any case, there was a document on the table, there were negotiations on it, based on Artsakh's self-determination, the right of our people to live outside Azerbaijan. All this has failed. Artsakh is now an enclave state. There are Azerbaijanis inside our borders,” Ohanyan told Hetq.

Ohanyan said Armenian soldiers fought selflessly on all fronts, but the state failed to replenish their ranks. He said the government’s mobilization efforts were disorganized and ineffective.

Ohanyan concluded by saying he doesn’t expect much, if anything, from the inquiry committee given its current composition and purview.

“First, Nikol Pashinyan, the National Assembly Speaker, the National Security Council Secretary should be invited. There is a state apparatus of thousands. Let everyone be invited. Let's go back and see what work the committee is doing. I think that the inquiry committee will only divert attention, place blame on former authorities, and justify the defeat in this war.”