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MP Agnesa Khamoyan from the opposition Hayastan faction says she has urged the Armenian authorities to set up an investigative commission to reveal whether second President Robert Kocharyan has shares in the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC).

Speaking to Panorama.am on Thursday, she said that opposition lawmakers themselves could establish such a commission, however the logic of her proposal is that the authorities should form it, because it is they who stress the need to find out whether Robert Kocharyan owns shares in the mining industry enterprise.

At the same time, the opposition MP is convinced that the authorities will not move to set up such a commission, as they "won't shoot themselves in the foot.”

"I made such a proposal in response to a statement by an MP from the ruling Civil Contract faction that it was necessary to find out whether Robert Kocharyan or any of his family members owned a stake in the ZCMC. I first reminded that the team has been in power for four years, but has essentially never found out whether Kocharyan or any of his family members own shares in the combine. Such false reports have been spread for years by both the media and some so-called opposition deputies. Staying true to the same practice, the incumbent authorities, who used to be the opposition, continue to spread the same falsehoods,” Khamoyan said

“I made my proposal crystal clear: they have been in power for four years and haven't yet found out whether Robert Kocharyan has ZCMC shares or not, so let them now set up a commission of inquiry and find out," she noted.

The opposition MP added that because of her second proposal, the authorities would not take that step. "The commission should also answer the question about how racketeering began at the state level. It’s about the transfer of the 15% of the ZCMC shares to Nikol Pashinyan's office,” Khamoyan said.

“The following questions should be answered: where were the agreements reached, where did the negotiations take place, between whom were the agreements reached, why was the 15% transferred to Nikol Pashinyan's office and not to the competent ministry, why did he send one of his loyal men to the board of the combine and then the latter withdrew?... The authorities insist that there is no corpus delicti in the transfer of 15% shares to Pashinyan's office.

“The investigative commission must find answers to all these questions. It is clear to me that the authorities will not shoot themselves in the foot and will not set up a commission to answer these questions, but they will continue spreading falsehoods in a manner typical of them," the opposition deputy said.

Khamoyan reiterates if the authorities’ claims are true, then they should establish a commission to investigate the case and shed light on the whole story.

"It's really ridiculous when people have been in power for 4 years and it's like they never figured out who owns shares in a specific enterprise. I have accurate information that after taking over as prime minister, the first thing Nikol Pashinyan did was to closely check what company Mr. Kocharyan had a stake in and how many percent, but every time he was disappointed,” he said.

“For years, the authorities kept claiming that he owned a stake in Spayka company. I wonder if they have found out anything or not, or whether, according to the rumors floating around, their relations with the management of Spayka have already normalized and it no longer matters who had shares in the company,” the MP noted.

According to her, it is obvious that the authorities and personally Nikol Pashinyan have realized perfectly well that the allegations they have been repeatedly making for years are completely false.