What Flaws Did Marukyan Notice in the Report of the Investigation Commission on the April War?

The head of the "Enlightened Armenia" faction, Edmond Marukyan, has noticed certain flaws in the report of the investigative commission examining the circumstances of the April War. Marukyan made this statement in a conversation with journalists in the National Assembly following a closed-door discussion.

According to the head of the faction, the deep-rooted causes of the April War were already clear, at least among those who have access to confidential information.

"The commission has done considerable work. I cannot say that I am satisfied with the report. The report has certain flaws, which I discussed in the closed meeting. If the current Chief of Staff (Artak Davtyan) is among the guilty parties, and according to the report and former interviews of Andranik Kocharyan, he is one of the guilty parties, then he should not be the Chief of Staff now. For me, this is a sign that if this is the case, then we do not have an impartial investigation in this sense," said Marukyan.

He added that regarding Artak Davtyan's guilt, he refers to publicly available information, that is, Andranik Kocharyan's interviews, not the report itself. On November 16, 2020, Andranik Kocharyan stated that he believed Artak Davtyan had played a very poor role during the military actions of 2016, as the head of the operational department.

The report is classified, and Marukyan promised to comment on the sections that will be published. He is confident that certain parts may be declassified. The Enlightened Armenia faction is lobbying for the report to be opened and declassified.

"We want this to become a public asset, for the public to know what happened, who is guilty, and also to see whether those guilty have been punished or not, as well as to see whether those among the guilty who are opposed to power are involved in any criminal cases, while those who are in favor of power are not," emphasized Marukyan.

Let us remind that the National Assembly established the investigative commission on May 31 to study the circumstances of the April 2016 four-day war. High-ranking officials, including the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, and former Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, were invited to and participated in the sessions of the investigative commission. The commission's report was discussed in a closed session of the National Assembly on May 5.