Zurabyan warns of investment risks after Pashinyan's property remarks

Levon Zurabyan, vice chairman of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and the party’s candidate for prime minister, has accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of undermining the rule of law by threatening to nationalize a major opposition-owned business.

Speaking in a Facebook livestream on Wednesday, Zurabyan criticized Pashinyan’s recent statement that the Ararat Cement plant, owned by opposition leader Gagik Tsarukyan, would soon become state property. Zurabyan said the move reflects a broader pattern of politically motivated prosecutions.

“Until this man posed no danger to Nikol, everything was calm. As soon as he began to pose a threat, it turned into a vendetta,” Zurabyan said, alleging that Pashinyan targets rivals through arrests and criminal cases.

He warned that such actions could damage Armenia’s investment climate. “If the state can launch assaults against private ownership purely for political reasons, it will lead to bad outcomes,” he said.