Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced today that it is moving against the “Ararat Cement” company owned by “Prosperous Armenia” Party leader Gagik Tsarukyan, shortly after Nikol Pashinyan publicly targeted the enterprise in recent remarks.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, investigators claim to have uncovered alleged violations connected to the company’s privatization process. Officials stated that the collected materials contain indications of possible criminal offenses and that the case has been referred to the Anti-Corruption Committee. The allegations include abuse or excess of official authority and large-scale money laundering.
This is not the first major confrontation between Pashinyan’s government and Tsarukyan. In 2020, shortly after Tsarukyan publicly called for Pashinyan’s resignation, Armenian authorities raided his residence, parliament stripped him of immunity, and prosecutors launched criminal proceedings against him. Prosecutors sought his arrest, but the court refused to place him in pre-trial detention, establishing what many in the opposition now view as a familiar pattern under Pashinyan’s government: public political attacks followed by rapid legal and institutional escalation through state bodies.
The same sequence was used in the case of Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), seized by the state on July 18, 2025. ENA is part of the Tashir Group owned by Samvel Karapetyan, who came under mounting pressure after publicly defending the Armenian Apostolic Church during Pashinyan’s attacks against the Church and Catholicos Karekin II.
The latest move against Tsarukyan comes as opposition forces increasingly discuss political consolidation ahead of future electoral developments, with Tsarukyan once again ruling out political alignment with Pashinyan and instead signaling cooperation with opposition forces.
The case against “Ararat Cement” is being seen not as an isolated anti-corruption investigation, but as part of Pashinyan’s broader effort to weaken political rivals and independent centers of influence through prosecutions, seizures, and other state pressure measures that repeatedly coincide with political conflict.
