Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today met with the parents of killed soldiers. Addressing those present, he noted: “Our meeting is being held about 2 months later than planned. The reason is that we hoped to have curbed the epidemic by that time as we did not want the meeting to take place amid lockdown. But whereas the epidemic continues upwards, and given the importance of the issue, we decided to start work before the epidemic is over.

I know that you did not stop working even for a minute during this time, since we agreed that we should form a trusted group, which, in essence, should give answers to questions that concern not only you, but all of us, our society. And we also agreed that we should start this process in such a way that we would all accept the findings regardless of the results. To do this, we agreed that you should introduce your trusted lawyers. I will introduce lawyers, too, so that we get an answer to these questions.

We should give the working group the opportunity not to be influenced in any way by our opinions, beliefs, thoughts and desires. For example, what is one of our greatest risks if the people representing us decide that they must defend their version of the investigation to the end, regardless of the facts? In this way, we will not only solve the problem, we will aggravate it instead.

I hope you are convinced that there is no higher value for me than the truth in this situation. I repeat, if you even have 0.1% doubt about it, we had better give up this process. I am not saying 5, 6, 7, 1, if you even have a 0.1 per cent doubt that I personally have interests other than the truth in this process, there is no point in starting it. I am ready to accept any truth, and each of us must be disposed this way,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

Deputy Prime Minister Anna Vardapetyan and the representative of the legal successors of the killed soldiers Arayik Papikyan presented the work done for the formation of a joint alternative investigation group.

Note that an agreement was reached to form a joint working group at a meeting held in March this year between the Prime Minister and the parents of perished soldiers. The task force should comprise 3 trusted lawyers introduced by the legal successors of killed soldiers and 3 lawyers appointed by the Prime Minister.

It was noted that a working procedure for the group had been developed through remote discussions. The procedure provides that the task force should study a total of 8 criminal cases, each of which will have a separate meeting with the legal successor of the killed soldier, and following a thorough study of the available documents, will present an advisory opinion to the Prime Minister.

During the exchange of views that followed, Prime Minister Pashinyan took note of parents’ concerns and suggestions. It was decided to include Arayik Papikyan, a representative of perished soldiers’ legal successors, as the group’s lawyer. Following the meeting, it was agreed to continue working discussions in this format.