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MEET THE CANDIDATES
Artur Baghdasaryan Artur Baghdasaryan
is currently the chairman of the National Assembly. He was
born on Nov. 8, 1968, in Yerevan. In 1992, he completed the
faculty of law of Yerevan State University. From 1989-93, he
worked at the editorial offices of the Avangard newspaper as
a correspondent, head of department, and deputy
editor-in-chief. From 1994-97, he studied at the Academy of
Civil Service of the President of the Russian Federation. In
1997, in Moscow, he defended his doctoral dissertation and
received the doctorate of legal sciences degree.
On July 5, 1995, Baghdasaryan was elected deputy of the
Armenian National Assembly. In June 1998, he was elected the
head of the Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law) Party. On May 30,
1999, he was elected deputy of the National Assembly (of the
second convocation from the Shengavit Electoral District
Number 21) and in September 1999, was named head of the
Orinats Yerkir faction in the Assembly. On May 25, 2003 he
was elected a deputy of the third convocation of the
Assembly. He was elected chairman of the National Assembly
on June 12, 2003.
Baghdasaryan is married and has two children.
Tigran Karapetian Tigran Karapetian
was born on May 16, 1945 in Yerevan. He is the founding
director of the ALM media company. He is married and has 5
children.
Artashes Geghamian Artashes Geghamian
was born on Dec. 2, 1949, in Yerevan. From 1989-90, he was
the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Yerevan City
Council. He spent the next four years as a member of the
group of observers in the Andrnavtgazshin JSC, as the
director of the Prometheus Armenian Universal Exchange and
as general director of 21st Century Ltd.
From 1995-99, Geghamian served as a deputy in the National
Assembly. From 1999-2003, he served in his second term as a
deputy (from the proportional list of the Law and Unity
Alliance), on the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations.
He was later the leader of the Law and Unity faction.
He was a candidate in the 2003 Presidential elections. On
May 25, 2003, he was reelected to the Assembly from the
proportional list of the National Unity Party. He is the
leader of the National Unity faction and its founding
president. He is a member of the Parliamentarians for Global
Action Inter-parliamentary Organization and a member of the
National Assembly’s delegation to the Council of Europe.
Geghamian is married and has two children.
Aram Harutyunian Aram Harutyunian was
born on July 20, 1967, in the village of Yeghvard. From
1985-92, he attended the Yerevan Architecture and
Construction Institute. He is Minister of Urban Development
of Armenia. From He is a member of the national Assembly
since 1999. On June 2004 he became Minister of urban
development
Harutyunyan is a member of the Orinats Yerkir Party.
Harutyunian is married and has three children.
Vahan Hovhannesian Vahan Hovhannisyan
is currently the vice-chairman of the National Assembly. He
was born on August 16, 1956, in Yerevan. He graduated with
degrees in history and archaeology from the Moscow
Pedagogical Institute in 1978. From 1978-1980, he served in
the Soviet army. He spent the next nine years working first
as a scientific assistant and later as head of the
scientific research division in the Erebuni Museum. In 1989,
he worked as a scientific associate in the Institute of
Archaeology and Ethnography under the Academy of Sciences.
From 1990-92, he took part in the Artsakh liberation
movement. From 1990-92, he was a member of the Armenia
Central Committee of the ARF and from 199295, was a member
of its bureau. From 1995-98, he was detained for a political
cause (the allegation was not confirmed). From 1998-99, he
worked as an advisor to President Kocharian and was head of
the Commission on Issues of Local Self-Governance.
His first term as a deputy in the National Assembly
(electoral district # 17) was from 1999-2003. He served as
chairman of the Standing Committee on Defense, National
Security and Internal Affairs. He was also a member of the
ARF faction.
On May 25, 2003, he was reelected from the proportional list
of the ARF and elected vice-chairman of the Assembly on June
12. He is currently a member of both the ARF faction and its
bureau. Hovhannisyan is married and
has two children.
Vazgen Manukyan Vazgen Manukyan is
currently the chairman of the National Democratic Union
party. He was born on Feb. 13, 1946 in Gyumri, Armenia. He
holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and physical science. He became
Prime Minister of Armenia on Aug. 13, 1990, but resigned on
Nov. 22, 1991. From 1992-93 he was acting Minister of
Defense. He was arrested in December
1988 in Moscow because he was a member of the Karabakh
Committee and spent six months in prison. After Armenia
gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, he
was elected in Parliament three times and ran unsuccessfully
for President of Armenia in 1996, 1998 and 2003.
Manukyan is married and has three children.
Arman Melikyan Arman Melikyan was
born on March 11, 1963, in Yerevan. He studied archeology at
Yerevan State University. He then worked at the Armenian
state TV and radio stations. He has held several positions
with the Armenian Foreign Ministry and has represented
Armenia in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Melikyan is married and has two sons.
Serge Sarkisian Serge Sarkisian is
currently the Prime Minister of Armenia. He was born on June
30, 1954, in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh. From 1972-74, he
served in the Soviet armed forces. In 1979, he graduated
from the philological department of Yerevan State
University. From 1989-93, he led the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic Self-Defense Forces Committee.
From 1993-95, he served as the Minister of Defense of the
Republic of Armenia. From 1995-96, he was the head of the
State Security Department and, later, the Minister of
National Security. From 1996-99, he was the Minister of
Interior and National Security. From 1999-2000, he was the
chief of staff of the President Robert Kocharian.
From 2000-07, he was the Minister of Defense. On April 4,
2007, he was appointed Prime Minister of the Republic of
Armenia. On June 7, 2007, he was re-appointed Prime
Minister, taking charge of the government formed after the
National Assembly elections.
Sarkisian has been a member of the Republican Party of
Armenia since 2006. From July 2006 to November 2007, he was
the chairman of the Party Council. In November 2007, he was
elected chairman of the party.
Sarkisian married his wife, Rita Sarkisian, in 1983. She was
also born in Stepanakert, to a military family. She is a
music teacher by profession. Together they have two
daughters, Anush and Satenik, and one granddaughter, Mariam.
Levon Ter-Petrossian Levon Ter-Petrossian
was the President of Armenia from 1991-98. Because of many
economic and political problems, he resigned on Feb. 3,
1998, and was succeeded by Robert Kocharian. Ter-Petrossian
was born on Jan. 9, 1945, in Aleppo, Syria, to an
Armenian-Syrian communist family. They emigrated to Armenia
in 1946. In 1968, Ter-Petrossian
graduated from the oriental studies department at Yerevan
State University. In 1972, he completed his master’s thesis.
In 1987, he received his doctoral degree. From 1972-78, he
worked as junior researcher at the Literature Institute of
Armenia, named after Manouk Abeghian. From 1978-85, he held
the post of science secretary at the Matenadaran, named
after Saint Mesrob Mashdots. Since 1985, Ter-Petrossian has
been working at the Matenadaran as a senior researcher. He
is the author of more than 70 scholarly publications in
Armenian, Russian and French. In
1989, he was elected to serve on the board of the
Pan-Armenian National Movement. Later on, he became chairman
of the board. Ter-Petrossian was
elected the first President of the newly independent
Republic of Armenia on Oct. 16, 1991, and re-elected on
Sept. 22, 1996. His re-election was marred by electoral
fraud reported by the opposition and supported by some
international observers. His popularity waned further as the
opposition began to blame him for the economic quagmire
Armenia’s post-Soviet economy was in. He banned the ARF and
jailed its leadership, on the grounds that the party had a
foreign-based leadership. Ter-Petrossian
was forced to step down in February 1998 after advocating
concessions to Azerbaijan in the resolution of the conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh, which many Armenians regarded as
undermining their security.
On Oct. 26, 2007, Ter-Petrossian made his first public
speech in almost a decade, criticizing and accusing the
current authorities with charges of corruption. He has since
announced his candidacy for the Presidential elections.
Several opposition parties have rallied behind him. |
