Former Military Official 'Sacked' to Make Room for Aren Mkrtchyan, Decision Made Personally by Pashinyan

The newspaper "Hraparak" reports that the appointment of MP Aren Mkrtchyan from the "My Step" faction to the National Assembly's Defense Committee is not solely due to rotation.

Yesterday, it was revealed that to allow Mkrtchyan to become a member of this committee, which also has the authority to investigate the events of the April War, fellow faction member Aram Khachatryan was 'ousted' from the committee.

Khachatryan informed us yesterday that he will now be included in the committee on regional and Eurasian integration issues. Meanwhile, weeks ago, committee member Kristine Poghosyan had attributed this rotation to the inclusion of a new MP in the faction. After Narine Tukhikyan was appointed as Deputy Minister, Arthur Hovhannisyan received the mandate and will be included in the Human Rights Protection Committee, while Aren Mkrtchyan will transfer to the Defense Committee.

We have already reported that the decision for Aren Mkrtchyan's transfer was made personally by Nikol Pashinyan, who believes Mkrtchyan will be useful during the investigation of the April events, as he conducted an investigation regarding the Ministry of Defense while still serving as the Prime Minister's advisor on corruption, recovering approximately 7 billion drams for the state budget.

Notably, Aram Khachatryan is a former military official, having graduated from the Vazgen Sargsyan Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia in 1999, and served in the Armenian armed forces until 2009. In contrast, Mkrtchyan is a geographer-geologist by profession and has worked in the media as a sports commentator.

For more details, refer to today’s edition of the newspaper.