Yerevan appoints ruling party member as temporary manager of Karapetyan’s Electric Networks of Armenia
On Friday, the Chair of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC), Mesrop Mesropyan, appointed Romanos Petrosyan as the temporary manager of the Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), in an apparent overture to the state’s takeover of the company.
Petrosyan is a prominent member of the ruling Civil Contract party’s board.
His appointment as temporary manager of the ENA based on a bill recently passed by parliament that would effectively allow the state to take over the company.
The decision will enter into force a day after the company is informed.
A day before his appointment, Petrosyan was discharged from his position as head of the State Supervisory Service, in which he was appointed in December 2021. Previously, Petrosyan held other state positions, serving as Environment Minister and Kotayk governor.
Media reports suggested that he was a candidate for the position prior to his appointment.
‘We must take over management’
In early July, the Armenian Parliament adopted a bill allowing the state to take over the ENA, the country’s electricity company, from Russian–Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, who is currently detained on charges of making calls to usurp power from the government.
Yousef Bardouka
While the bill does not necessarily directly allow the state to nationalise ENA, its provisions would allow the state to ‘intervene’ and oversee its administration should the company fail to meet its obligations.
Specifically, the amendments would allow the authorities to launch proceedings against the ENA should it fail to properly fulfil its obligations.
The violations that catapulted Petrosyan into temporarily managing the ENA were submitted to the PSRC by the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, RFE/RL reported on Thursday.
‘At this stage, we — the state — must take over the management of the ENA, and we will take over the management of the ENA’, the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced on Wednesday during his press conference.
He also did not rule out that its management could be outsourced, but did not clarify as to who could take over the company’s management.
‘Our task, in any case, is to find the most efficient manager possible and also to establish very clear and effective public and governmental oversight over that management’, Pashinyan said.
Arshaluys Barseghyan
The ENA is managed by Karapetyan’s Tashir Group.
Karapetyan was arrested on 18 June during a raid on his home in Yerevan after he had made statements in defence of the Armenian Apostolic Church amidst ongoing tensions between it and the government.
Following the arrest, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan vowed to ‘swiftly’ nationalise ENA.
Pashinyan claimed the move was not related to statements Karapetyan had made in support of the church, but instead cited public discontent with the company’s services and frequent power outages in Armenia, which Pashinyan alleged were intentionally used ‘to generate internal public discontent in Armenia’.
In mid-July, the Armenian authorities raided the ENA and the home of Karapetyan’s nephew, Narek Karapetyan, who chairs the company, in an escalation of tensions between the government and Karapetyan.
Yousef Bardouka
