Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has claimed that Armenia has ‘won’ the arbitration case initiated by Russian–Armenian tycoon Samvel Karapetyan against Armenia regarding his Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA).
The ENA, run by Karapetyan’s Tashir Group, manages most of the country’s electricity distribution network. It has been at the centre of a dispute between Pashinyan’s government and Karapetyan for the past several months.
In July, the Armenian authorities adopted legislation that virtually allowed it to nationalise the ENA, with Pashinyan citing public discontent with the company’s services and frequent power outages in Armenia as a reason for the move. Pashinyan even alleged that frequent power outages were intentionally used ‘to generate internal public discontent in Armenia’.
During a press briefing on Thursday, Pashinyan again spoke about the ENA, asserting that ‘no one can defeat Armenia anywhere’ in reference to the ongoing arbitration.
‘That topic has long been a closed issue, and the ENA must serve the people of the Republic of Armenia. It is an excluded scenario for the ENA, under any scenario, to continue not serving the people of [...] Armenia’, Pashinyan said.
He went on to double down on his stance in response to a question, suggesting that the government itself had ‘accepted that the decision of the international arbitration court is mandatory’.
Pashinyan immediately responded by interrupting the journalist who had asked the question by saying that ‘whoever has expressed [such] a position, let them write a [resignation] letter and leave.
‘There absolutely cannot be such a position. I am the government. No one can have a position that contradicts mine. In general, if there are people in the government who have a position that contradicts mine, let them write their resignation right now and leave the buildings. If not, I will remove them myself’, he said.
Commenting on Pashinyan’s stance, Karapetyan’s legal team stated that they were grateful to Pashinyan for his remarks.
‘One more such statement, and our final victory in the arbitration court will be inevitable’, Karapetyan’s lawyers’ wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.
Pashinyan fires Armenia’s international legal representative
The following day, on Friday, Pashinyan dismissed Liparit Drmeyan, head of the Office of the Representative on international legal matters, whose office stated earlier that it was mandatory for the urgent arbitration ruling to be implemented.
News.am was the first to report on the office’s stance on the arbitration ruling — on 15 August, citing sources, they claimed Drmeyan had stated in official correspondence that the decision to appoint a temporary administrator at the ENA ‘should be immediately suspended in order to avoid further sanctions against Armenia’.
Later, the office confirmed the information to Armenian media, emphasising that the arbitrator's decision was subject to enforcement.
Following this, on 27 August, Karapetyan’s team published a letter sent by Drmeyan’s office, which noted that the arbitration ruling in favour of Karapetyan was mandatory to implement. Karapetyan’s team, however, did not clarify how they obtained the letter.
Karapetyan’s ‘final victory in the arbitration court will be inevitable’
On Thursday, Pashinyan was also asked if they had calculated the consequences of not implementing the ruling. In response, Pashinyan claimed that they ‘won in the arbitration court […] that’s all’.
Pashinyan was likely referring to the second urgent ruling of the arbitration court in early August, to which the Armenian government and Karapetyan’s team had contradictory interpretations.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
However, there has been no final ruling of the arbitration court.
The investment arbitration case against Armenia was launched on 11 August by the Karapetyan family over the ‘expropriation’ of the ENA, seeking $500 million compensation for existing and expected damages as a result of the government’s actions.
Following this, the Armenian government adopted a decision to allocate $3.25 million to US law firm Arnold & Porter to represent Armenia at the Stockholm Arbitration Court in its legal battle against Karapetyan.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
The process regarding the ENA was launched after Karapetyan was detained in late June — he was charged with making calls to overthrow the government. Pashinyan vowed to ‘swiftly’ nationalise the ENA following Karapetyan’s arrest.
Weeks later, on 3 July, the Armenian Parliament adopted legislative amendments virtually allowing the state to take over the ENA. Later that month, Romanos Petrosyan, a prominent member of the ruling Civil Contract party’s board, was appointed temporary manager of the ENA.
Following this, there were two urgent arbitration rulings regarding the ENA, which, according to Karapetyan’s lawyers, were subject to ‘mandatory execution’ by the government.
The tribunal reportedly applied interim measures prohibiting the government from taking further steps to ‘seize’ the company, including refraining from enacting recent legislative amendments aimed at taking over the ENA before a full arbitration case could be held.
The government’s response has cast doubt over whether they would honour the ruling, a move that could impact investor confidence in the country.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
