Armenian investors of small hydropower plants that came under Azerbaijani control as a result of the 44-day war in 2020 plan to launch international arbitration proceedings against Azerbaijan, claiming that the latter confiscated and appropriated their property as a result of military actions in 2020. This was reported by Global Arbitration Review, the leading specialized website following the events on international arbitrations, the RFE/RL Armenian Service reports.

The respective notification was submitted on December 5—and on behalf of 19 Armenian owners of the aforesaid small hydropower plants.

The interests of these Armenian investors are represented by the prestigious New York law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

The lawsuit concerns 18 small hydropower plants located in Artsakh’s (Nagorno-Karabakh) Martakert, Lachin, and Kelbajar regions, whose owners believe that Azerbaijan has violated a number of provisions of the European Energy Charter by appropriating them.

The aforementioned notification will be followed by a three-month period, only after which the official start of the arbitration proceedings can be given.

The compensation claim presented by the plaintiffs to Azerbaijan reaches several hundred million US dollars.

The disputed small hydropower plants are now part of the Azerbaijani state-owned AzEnergy company.

The period until 2020 was marked by infrastructure investments—particularly, in renewable energy—in the regions under the control of Artsakh. The region was self-sufficient in terms of energy, and in 2018 it even started exporting electricity to Armenia, Global Arbitration Review recalled.