Artak Davtyan Should Be Tried for Inefficient Use of State Resources, Gorgisyan

According to Gevorg Gorgisyan, the secretary of the "Enlightened Armenia" parliamentary group, the fact that the report of the inquiry committee investigating the circumstances of the April War has not yet been rejected is based on the political expedience of the ruling force. In a conversation with journalists in the National Assembly today, he stated, "There were issues that were revealed in 2016 and were not corrected before the 2020 war. Their failures and losses in the last war are incomparable to those of the April 2016 war, where we were able to halt the enemy's offensive, while this time we clearly did not succeed. The political outcome they wanted from the activity of that commission was to create an image of Serzh Sargsyan as a defeated and failed leader. They will not be able to do that because they appear to be much more unsuccessful against that backdrop. Therefore, it is not being disclosed for political expedience."

Gorgisyan noted that the problems that occurred in the April war were repeated in the 44-day war, with tenfold greater losses. He emphasized that the report should consist of several parts: one part should be directed at the Ministry of Defense, addressing identified shortcomings and their solutions; another should be directed at law enforcement agencies, which will investigate the shortcomings and identify those responsible; one part should be directed at the National Assembly with legislative amendment proposals, and another part should be directed at the public to dispel doubts and the toxic narratives that have previously been spread to demoralize and devalue the army.

“Within the framework of the April Commission, there is sufficient material to initiate a criminal case against the current Chief of Staff, Artak Davtyan, and he should be obliged to clarify why he acted in that manner. The same applies to the recent war,” said the LHK MP. “I believe they rejected our proposal to create a quarantine committee because there were numerous grounds indicating that Artak Davtyan himself should be tried for the inefficient use of state resources and for purchasing weapons that were clearly evident we would not be able to utilize. We also decommissioned weapons that we could have used when we needed them,” he concluded.