Earlier this week, Armenia’s Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure published a draft decision declaring Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) to be of overriding public interest, a move that would pave the way for its expropriation.
The draft does not specify the amount of compensation to be paid to the company’s owners. It says only that the decision followed the owners’ rejection of the government’s purchase offer.
The government says it offered Karapetian’s family 23.5 billion drams (about $64.5 million) to acquire the utility on condition that they return about 23 billion drams in dividends received from ENA over the past decade. The deal did not materialize.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian called for ENA’s nationalization last year shortly after Karapetian, the head of Tashir Group, which owns the company, was arrested in June 2025 following his criticism of the government’s campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Karapetian was subsequently charged with publicly calling for the overthrow of the government, as well as money laundering, large-scale fraud and tax evasion. He denies the accusations, calling them politically motivated.
The businessman, who was moved to house arrest in December, set up a political party, Strong Armenia, which, in an alliance with several other opposition groups, challenged Pashinian’s ruling Civil Contract party in the June 7 parliamentary elections. Strong Armenia currently holds the largest opposition faction in the Armenian parliament.
The government forcibly took over ENA’s management in July 2025, accusing Tashir Group of mismanaging the power distribution network. Tashir rejected the allegations and appealed to the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.
Pashinian has said that, after nationalization, ENA will remain state-owned but will be placed under trust management.
“We have made a conceptual decision regarding ENA: it will be state property that will be handed over to trust management,” the prime minister said last month.
Karapetian, who was attending his trial in a Yerevan court on Friday, refused to put a price tag on the company he owns.
“ENA is not for sale,” he said. “If I’m not selling it, what price are we talking about?”
He also expressed confidence that the Pashinian government would eventually have to return ENA to its “rightful owner.”
“Don’t worry about ENA. ENA will return to its rightful owner. They won’t be able to do anything. They have already realized that they won’t be able to manage ENA,” the businessman said.
Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Minister Davit Khudatian said on Thursday that the government would select an independent appraiser from among local firms to assess ENA’s market value.
Under the procedure outlined by Khudatian, ENA’s owners may also have the company’s value assessed by an independent appraiser of their choice and submit the results to the buyer.
“If the value of the shares has been assessed by both the buyer and the owner, the final value is determined by the average of the two appraisals,” Khudatian explained. “If there is more than one appraisal, the average of the values obtained through all appraisals is used as the basis.”
The minister said that if ENA’s owners disagree with the report of the independent appraiser, they may challenge it with the ministry or in court. But he stressed that the process of declaring the company to be of overriding public interest and determining compensation will not be halted while such a challenge is pending.