45-50 Individuals Dismissed from HETC: Manager Acting With Impunity - Davit Ghazinyan

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of HETC, Narek Karapetyan, had sent a letter to the Chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission, Mesrop Mesropyan, requesting the enforcement of the interim decision from the Stockholm arbitration concerning HETC. In a meeting with reporters, the former acting director of HETC, Davit Ghazinyan, stated that initially, Mesropyan responded that it was beyond his jurisdiction, but later it became known that the commission's president had sent a letter to the head of the government staff, asking for the government’s position on how to proceed regarding the recognition or enforcement of the arbitration decision.

“The head of the international legal issues office of the government staff responded to Mesropyan, stating the following: regarding the enforcement of the arbitration ruling, as a rule, it is subject to immediate mandatory enforcement by the parties,” Ghazinyan said. According to him, he has serious doubts that the government is creating an imitation, but the commission is an independent body and must make its own decisions.

“This is not state action in the sense that if the state joins an international treaty or agreement, they are superior to internal legislative acts. For example, imagine a situation where the ECHR makes a ruling, and here they say, ‘our judicial bodies are independent; they do not enforce that decision.’ In any case, the ball is in the court of the commission’s president. After receiving all this information, the chairman of the board tells the board's chair, 'it’s beyond our jurisdiction,' the chairman of the commission acts according to the laws. The question arises: why did he appeal to the government for clarification? In my opinion, the main purpose of the appeal is to determine how to act.

The chairman of the commission has absolutely no control over today’s manager, who acts with great impunity, without acknowledging or looking at his rights, making various statements. I am convinced that the chairman of the commission is not independent, but why has he taken on such a burden, why has he found himself in a ‘suicidal’ position, I cannot say,” Ghazinyan added.