On August 29, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan dismissed Liparit Drmeyan, Head of the Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters, amid a growing dispute over the legal standing of a recent Stockholm Arbitration Court ruling.
The dismissal followed the prime minister’s briefing yesterday, during which Pashinyan stated in response to a journalist’s question that the government does not intend to comply with the urgent decision of the Stockholm Arbitration Court, which prohibits the confiscation of “Electric Networks of Armenia” (ENA), and that the government had actually won in the arbitration.
He also noted that officials within the government who hold an opposing position must leave the executive.
“Whoever in the government has expressed such a position should write a resignation letter and go. Absolutely no such stance can exist. I am the government, and no one can have a position that contradicts mine. In general, if there are people in the government whose position contradicts mine, they should immediately write a resignation letter and leave the buildings; if not, then I myself will remove them,” Pashinyan said.
On July 22, the Stockholm Arbitration Institute required the government to refrain from seizing the company’s assets, from changing ENA’s management bodies, and from altering its charter. Following this decision, the Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters under the Prime Minister’s staff commented that the arbitration ruling is binding.
ENA, partially owned by the Tashir Group, is controlled by Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan.
Karapetyan was arrested in June on charges of making public calls to “seize power and overthrow the constitutional order.” He has also openly criticized Pashinyan and other government officials over their calls for new leadership in the Armenian Apostolic Church.
On August 27, David Ghazinyan, the former acting director of ENA, published official correspondence between the government and the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC), in which the Head of the Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters, Liparit Drmeyan, confirmed that the appointment of temporary manager Romanos Petrosyan contradicted the arbitration decision.
In a letter addressed to Mesrop Mesropyan, Chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC), Drmeyan demanded implementation of the Stockholm Arbitration Court’s decision, the Supervisory Committee of Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) reported.
“The arbitral award is subject to immediate and mandatory execution by the parties,” Drmeyan wrote. He emphasized that the issue of recognition and enforcement of the arbitral award in domestic courts arises only if one party fails to comply voluntarily. In such a case, the other party must apply to a competent national court to recognize and enforce the award, which may be denied only on the limited grounds set out in the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention).
“In response to several inquiries sent by the PSRC to the Prime Minister’s staff regarding whether the arbitration ruling is subject to mandatory enforcement, the Office of the Representative on International Legal Matters provided a detailed explanation of the relevant regulations concerning arbitral awards, including the binding nature of the July 22 decision of the Stockholm emergency arbitrator, its voluntary execution, and recognition,” the office stated.
It is clear that the dismissal was preceded by a conflict within the government: on one side, the international legal office insisted the decision was binding, while on the other, the prime minister declared that Armenia would not comply with it — a clash that ultimately led to Drmeyan’s removal from his position.
Representatives of Tashir Group, which owns ENA, also commented on the situation.
“If a person is not restrained in some way, one day he may decide that he is the government, the next day that he is the National Assembly, the day after that the chief of energy, and another day the one who appoints the spiritual leader,” said Narek Karapetyan, Vice President of Tashir Group and head of the Coordinating Council of the “Mer Dzevov” (“In Our Way”) movement founded by Samvel Karapetyan.
He made the statement on August 29 during the movement’s launch event, referring to Pashinyan’s earlier remark, “I am the government.”
Karapetyan’s legal team also commented on Pashinyan’s stance, stating 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 legal team wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.
