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On February 14, the first sitting of the RA NA Inquiry Committee for Studying the Circumstances of the Hostilities Unleashed on September 27, 2020 was convened. The NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security will exercise the authorities. Andranik Kocharyan has stated that the need to establish a committee is reflected in the Government 2021-2026 programme and has presented 7 directions that are the subject to study:

The prerequisites, reasons and conditions for unleashing hostilities on September 27, 2020, the chronology of the war, losses suffered by the Armenian side,

The political and military reasons for the registered failures and the conditions contributing to them,

The system of the management and administration in the sphere of defense, the process of preparatory actions defined in the sphere of defense in the pre-war period,

The efficiency of the actions of the military governing bodies and officials, the decisions made by them, their correspondence and equivalence to the created operative military situation,

The study of the factual circumstances confirming or denying the military events in the criminal cases initiated during the military actions and after that,

The study of the state of the armed forces, rear armament, combat readiness, compliance with the rules of combat duty, replenishment of troops, service of troops, intelligence activities,

The negotiation process, the end of the 44-day war.

Andranik Kocharyan has referred to the sphere of competence of the Committee, within the framework of which it is possible to demand and receive normative and non-normative acts related to the sphere of defense, orders, instructions, materials of service examination, reports, references, reports of the collegium and the military council. The Committee can request information about the factual circumstances confirming or denying the military events in the criminal cases initiated during the acts of warfare within the scope of the investigative bodies.

If necessary, in case of confrontation, representatives of investigative bodies, senior officers, high-ranking officials can be invited.

The Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security Andranik Kocharyan presented the work procedure consisting of 36 paragraphs of the Committee.

The opposition Committee members attending the sitting stated that the NA Armenia and With Honor Factions made a decision not take part in the works of the Inquiry Committee created by the authorities. Andranik Kocharyan has noted that the statement still does not reflect the positions of three opposition deputies attending the sitting.

In response, Gegham Manukyan, Gegham Nazaryan and Tigran Abrahamyan stressed that the works of the Committee with the participation of the power wing could not provide objectivity and left the hall.

After the first sitting of the Inquiry Committee a press conference was held in another hall. The member of the newly created Committee answered the journalists’ questions. They related to the experts of the Committee, the schedule and the procedure of holding the sittings and the possibilities of the stakeholders’ involvement.