Tsarukian was arrested on Monday during a 12-hour search conducted at his villa just north of Yerevan. Law-enforcement authorities also raided and sealed off the offices of dozens of his companies, including the plant located in Ararat, a town 55 kilometers south of the Armenian capital. Thousands of their workers were sent home on what amounted to unpaid leave.
The cement plant alone employs nearly 1,000 people. Many of those workers rallied at its premises early in the morning to demand an end to the stoppage which has left them without income. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian accused them of protesting “on order” and threatened to fire them when he spoke to journalists at noon.
Meanwhile, law-enforcement officers arrived at the scene to negotiate with the company’s management. They were later joined by Deputy Economy Minister Edgar Zakarian.
“The factory is now resuming work,” Zakarian announced afterwards. “Hopefully minor technical obstacles will be resolved in a few hours, and it will be fully operational tomorrow.”
Pashinian said his government will nationalize the cement plant when he campaigned for the June 7 parliamentary elections in which Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) was one of the main opposition contenders. He has since repeatedly pledged to imprison and “dispossess” Tsarukian as well as the leaders of two other key opposition groups.
The premier said on Thursday that the government will soon install a new administration at the plant. He did not specify legal grounds or procedures for its planned seizure denounced by Tsarukian as illegal.
The jailed tycoon’s representatives say Pashinian’s statements prove that law-enforcement authorities are acting on his illegal and politically motivated orders. They as well as other critics say the statements make mockery of Pashinian’s claims about the rule of law established in Armenia.
So far the authorities have explained the de facto closure of only one company that is part of Tsarukian’s Multi Group conglomerate. The State Revenue Committee (SRC) claimed on Thursday that the Multi Wellness fitness center in central Yerevan evaded 832 million drams ($2.2 million) in taxes from 2023-2024.