Vagharshak Harutiunyan

Vagharshak Harutiunyan
File:Վաղարշակ Հարությունյան 02.JPG
Defence Minister of Armenia
In office 11 June 1999 – 20 May 2000
President	Robert Kocharyan
Preceded by	Vazgen Sargsyan
Succeeded by	Serzh Sargsyan
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs
In office 1991–1992
President	Levon Ter-Petrosyan
Personal details
Born	(1956-04-28)28 April 1956 Akhalkalaki, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union
Political party	Republic
Alma mater	Soviet Union General Staff Academy
Military service
Service/branch	Soviet Army Armed Forces of Armenia
Rank	Lieutenant general
Battles/wars	Soviet-Afghan War Nagorno-Karabakh War

Vagharshak Harutiunyan (Armenian: Վաղարշակ Հարությունյան; born 28 April 1956) was the Defence Minister of Armenia from 11 June 1999 until 20 May 2000.

Biography

Harutiunyan was born in Akhalkalaki, Georgian SSR (now Georgia), a region with a large Armenian population. He graduated from the Caspian Higher Naval School in 1978. From 1978 to 1989, he fought in the Soviet-Afghan War. Harutiunyan than graduatated from the Naval Academy of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union in 1991.

He switched allegiance to Armenia prior to the fall of the Soviet Union. Harutiunyan was named Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Defence Committee of Armenia in 1991, in the middle of the Nagorno-Karabakh War. In 1992, he became the Deputy Chief of Staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces of the CIS. Harutiunyan was chosen as the representative of the Armenian Armed Forces at the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1994.

In 1999, Harutiunyan returned to Armenia replace Vazgen Sargsyan as Defence Minister of Armenia on 11 June 1999 after Sargsyan was elected Prime Minister. Harutiunyan joined Sargsyan and Head of the Government Staff Shahen Karamanukyuan in the meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) heads of government in Yalta, Ukraine on 7 October 1999. He left the Defense Minister post on 20 May 2000.

On 23 July 2002, Harutiunyan joined the opposition party Republic, led by Aram Sargsyan, the brother of Vazgen Sarggsyan.

External links

• Interview (Russian)