Masked security officials take Gagik Tsarukyan to court on Jul. 7

More than 10,000 workers were out of work on Tuesday after National Security Service officers raided and seized businesses belonging to opposition leader Gagik Tsarukyan, whose home was also raided and he was taken into police custody.

Tsarukyan, who is the chair of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party, on Tuesday was remanded into pre-trial custody for two months.

The businesses and ventures run shut down after Tsarukyan’s arrest include the “Ararat Cement” factory, the Yerevan-based “Ararat” brandy, wine and vodka factory, the “Multi Stone” company, the “Multi Wellness” gym, the Olimpavan center and the “Pharaoh” restaurant. The National Olympic Committee of Armenia headed by Tsarukyan was also not operating on Tuesday.

Prosperous Armenia Party spokesperson Iveta Tonoyan said that more than 10,000 employees were forced out of their jobs as a result of Monday’s raid on Tsarukyan’s properties and businesses.

“I simply want to understand how prudent this ongoing effort to break the backbone of the country’s economy is,” Tonoyan said, according to Azatutyun.am.

“Of course, I understand that the current authorities have an insatiable and great desire to achieve their goal at any cost and motivated by political revenge. But I must inform you with regret that this process will actually be fraught with numerous dangerous consequences, because tens of thousands of people are now unemployed,” Tonoyan added.

Tsarukyan’s businesses have paid more than $7.5 million in taxes to the state in the first quarter of this year. According to data, “Ararat Cement” alone paid about one billion drams ($2,721,311) in taxes during that period and is the 82nd largest taxpayer in Armenia. Yerevan’s “Ararat” Cognac, Wine and Vodka Factory is the 321st, paying about 265 million drams ($721,148), and the “Pharaoh” restaurant is in the leading position, ranking as the 52nd largest company in the country, paying about 1.5 billion drams ($4,081,966) in taxes.

Two-Month Pre-Trial Detention for Tsarukyan
Tsarukyan strongly denied early on Tuesday new criminal charges that led to his arrest on Tuesday.

A handcuffed Tsarukyan briefly addressed reporters as he was escorted out of an Investigative Committee building in Yerevan to face court hearings on his pre-trial arrest. He was greeted by hundreds of supporters who gathered outside the building.

“The accusation is fabricated, it’s a bubble, there is nothing in it,” Tsarukyan said. “We will prove that by 100 percent. Everything will be cleared up.”

The arrest followed a 12-hour search conducted at his villa by law-enforcement authorities on Monday. The latter also raided dozens of companies owned by Tsarukyan and disrupted their operations in a crackdown widely linked to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s repeated pledges to jail and “dispossess” his political foes.

Armenia’s Investigative Committee claims that Tsarukyan led a “criminal group” that misappropriated $22 million worth of fuel, transport equipment and other goods supplied by his Iranian business partners from 2022 to 2024. His lawyers say he himself was defrauded by the Iranians and alerted the law-enforcement authorities about that.

“We clearly substantiated in the court that these individuals themselves owe Tsarukyan money and that they have not returned it, even though they had undertaken to do so by 2026,” one of the lawyers, Yerem Sargsyan, said right after a court hearing on his client’s arrest.

However, the Yerevan court allowed investigators to hold Tsarukyan in detention for the next two months. The defense lawyers said they will appeal against the decision made by the same judge who sanctioned the pre-trial arrest of a key Tsarukyan ally in the run-up to last month’s parliamentary elections.

Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Party of Armenia was seen as not clearing the four-percent threshold needed to enter parliament, according to the election results validated by Armenia’s Constitutional Court, which also rejected opposition appeals to revisit election results.

The Constitutional Court’s decision on Saturday, also granted the votes won by Tsarukyan’s party to Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party, increasing its seats in parliament. That increase, however, did not give the ruling party the two-thirds votes needed to pass significant legislative measures, such as the amendment of Armenia’s Constitution.

Opposition forces vowed to continue their struggle. The “Strong Armenia” and “Armenia” alliances, which won enough votes to secure them seats in the parliament, said that they would enter the legislature and use their mandates to advance their agenda.

A Lion has Died
As part of the law-enforcement crackdown on Tsarukyan, masked security officers also shut down a private zoo on the businessman’s residential compound, pledgling to move the wild animals to Yerevan Zoo.

They included three lions and four tigers. Zoo officials fired tranquilizer darts to sedate them for a hastier transport. One of the lions never woke up. Its death was officially confirmed the next evening.

Ashot Aslanian, the deputy director of the Yerevan Zoo, said he had warned the authorities that anesthesia-driven sleep will be dangerous for three of the big cats because of their old age, Azatutyun.am reported.

“I pointed out during the relevant documentation that we are conducting a high-risk operation,” he said.

The Investigative Committee, which oversaw the operation, said it will launch an inquiry into the lion’s death.

The committee defended the closure of Tsarukyan’s zoo the previous night, insisting that the wild animals were kept there as a result of “illegal hunting,” which it was also investigating. It did not elaborate on the claim. No lions or tigers live in the wild in Armenia.

Tonoyan, Tsarukyan’s spokesperson, insisted, meanwhile, the opposition leader had all legal permits for the confiscated animals. “Perhaps the best conditions in Armenia were provided for the animals kept there,” she said.

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