Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan has fired Liparit Drmeyan as head of his administration’s International Legal Affairs Office.

The dismissal is part of Pashinyan’s move to remove all officials who believe, contrary to Pashinyan, that a July 22 decision of the Stockholm Arbitration Court ordering Armenia to refrain from seizing the assets of the country’s electricity distribution utility - Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), is legally binding.

Pashinyan, at a press briefing yesterday, said his administration will not adhere to the decision and that officials who believe otherwise should leave voluntarily or face removal.

ENA is partially owned by the Tashir Group, a holding corporation owned by Samvel Karapetyan who was arrested in June on charges that he made public calls for people to “seize power and to overthrow the country’s constitutional order.”

Karapetyan lashed out at Pashinyan and other government officials who have called for a new leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Pashinyan has claimed that Catholicos Karekin II had fathered a child, thus breaking his vow of celibacy.

The Armenian government argues its involvement in ENA is driven by potential energy disruption concerns and is not politically motivated. Many, however, disagree and claim the move to nationalize ENA is in retaliation for Karapetyan’s support of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

On July 3, Armenia’s pro-Pashinyan majority National Assembly approved a government-backed bill to nationalize the ENA.