Government rejects inquiry as questions mount over army deaths and Shaki incident

YEREVAN — Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party has rejected an opposition proposal to establish a parliamentary commission examining peacetime deaths in the armed forces and the recent security breach in Syunik, once again avoiding accountability over serious failures in national security.

The initiative was proposed by Strong Armenia parliamentary leader Narek Karapetyan, who has also called for Defence Minister Suren Papikyan’s resignation following the October 1 incident in Shaki, where an Azerbaijani serviceman crossed into Armenian territory and shot and seriously wounded a local woman.

Civil Contract parliamentary secretary Volodya Hakobyan said the ruling faction would not support the commission, arguing that competent state bodies are already investigating the incidents and that a parliamentary inquiry is unnecessary.

The government’s position has come under sharper scrutiny given that Civil Contract is simultaneously moving ahead with a parliamentary commission concerning the Armenian Apostolic Church, despite the constitutional separation of church and state.

Opposition lawmakers say the contrast raises questions over the government’s priorities and its unwillingness to subject defence and security failures to broader parliamentary scrutiny.

National Assembly Speaker Ruben Rubinyan also sought to downplay the Shaki incident, saying it was “obvious” the case was not an act of sabotage and describing it instead as the illegal border crossing of an individual Azerbaijani serviceman.

His remarks came despite comments from ruling-party MP Andranik Kocharyan, the former head of parliament’s Defence Committee, who acknowledged that Armenia’s borders have vulnerabilities and did not rule out the possibility that the Azerbaijani serviceman may not have acted alone.

Rubinyan also dismissed concerns about the serviceman’s possible return to Azerbaijan, saying no such discussion was currently taking place and characterizing opposition warnings as a “fight against nothing.”

The opposition maintains that the government’s response reflects a broader refusal to confront serious problems inside the defence establishment. Karapetyan said that if Civil Contract blocks the commission, it would suggest that the authorities are either concealing the causes of repeated military deaths or are unwilling to properly investigate them.

Fifteen Armenian servicemen have died during the first nine months of the year in peacetime or service-related circumstances.

Rather than supporting an independent parliamentary examination of those deaths and the Shaki security breach, the ruling majority appears determined to keep both matters within government-controlled investigative structures, reinforcing opposition claims that the authorities are minimizing the seriousness of the situation instead of responding with accountability and decisive action.