Gegham Manukyan: 'I called Arzrun, told him to tell that beast to remove the video'

In a press briefing at the National Assembly, Gegham Manukyan, a member of the 'Armenia' faction, addressed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's report at the investigative committee regarding the 44-day war, stating that it bore no relation to the circumstances of the war or the defeat.

“He spoke about the day the ceasefire was declared and what demands were made of him, but he did not discuss the country's military-political management. The war is not just led by the army; it is a complex issue. Pashinyan talked about what he did on the morning of September 27 upon hearing about the war; just take a look at his Facebook page,” said the MP.

Manukyan noted that the opposition has declared that if Pashinyan's report is to be broadcast live, then the reports of others must also be made public. “It is impossible to speak about all the circumstances of the war in a live broadcast because we are dealing with numerous military and diplomatic secrets. The investigative committee was hearing from Pashinyan today, who referred to numerous proposals from Putin; will they bring Putin in for questioning so that we can understand if his statements were objective or not? We have heard hundreds of lies from Nikol,” he mentioned.

Speaking about the opposition's participation in committee meetings, the MP stated: “From the very beginning, our position has been very clear: an investigative committee cannot be formed with a majority of representatives from the government when the investigation topic—the 44-day war—took place during this government's term. Andranik Kocharyan is the chairman of the investigative committee today; in September 2020, he was the head of the defense committee. What actions did the parliamentary defense committee take at that time? All of this should have also been examined by the investigative committee, and it would be subjective for Andranik Kocharyan to investigate his own actions. Andranik Kocharyan referred to the events of April, but the April events are the best evidence that the investigation committee was formed when the ruling Republican Party was not in the majority,” he added.

Manukyan recalled the first day of the war and what Pashinyan posted on his Facebook page: “The first thing he did was post a poem on his page. Imagine you are in the prime minister's chair, you hear that a large-scale war is happening, Stepanakert and all of Artsakh are being shelled, and you say to yourself, 'Let me post a poem on Facebook.' Let me give another example; there is an Artsakh website, and two hours later, they posted a video showing tank movements in Stepanakert. Then you see Nikol Pashinyan clumsily posting a video of the tank movements on his page. I called Arzrun, saying, 'Tell that beast to remove the video; it can't be allowed.' They deleted it, they took it down. Let us conclude how prepared the government was for the war,” the opposition MP stated.

It should be reminded that today, on June 20, during the meeting of the investigative committee aimed at studying the circumstances of the military actions unleashed on September 27, 2020, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan provided details regarding the 44-day war.