Leonard Petrosyan ( hy, Լեոնարդ Պետրոսյան; 11 October 1952 – 27 October 1999) was an Armenian politician who was the acting

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of the

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Artsakh, officially the Republic of Artsakh () or the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (),, is a breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Artsakh controls a part of the former N ...

from 20 March 1997 to 8 September 1997. He also served as

Prime Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic The Prime Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was the head of government of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic between 1992 and 2017. The position of Prime Minister was established in 1992, and was appointed by the head of state—the ...

from December 1994 to June 1998. He was killed in the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting while serving as Deputy

Prime Minister of Armenia The prime minister of Armenia is the head of government and most senior minister within the Armenian government, and is required by the constitution to "determine the main directions of policy of the Government, manage the activities of the Gov ...

Career

Leonard Petrosyan was born in Martuni,

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh ( ) is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik, and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is m ...

, Azerbaijan SSR, where he attended the local primary as well as secondary school from 1958 to 1970. After serving briefly in the ranks of the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

from 1971 to 1973, he studied at the Yerevan Cooperation Institute in 1973 and later at the Yerevan Institute of National Economy in 1974. After graduating as an economist in 1979, he continued working in the system of common nutrition in an agricultural center run by the Martuni regional community of the Communist Party, a position he held since 1975 and kept until 1988. In 1988, he was appointed Deputy, then Chairman of the Agro-Industrial Committee and participated in the

Karabakh movement The Karabakh movement ( hy, Ղարաբաղյան շարժում, also the Artsakh movement Արցախյան շարժում) was a national mass movement in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh from 1988 to 1991 that advocated for the transfer of the ma ...

. Petrosyan became the President of the National Assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh, a regional council, on 12 September 1991. He left the position on 8 January 1992 and became the first deputy head of the department of special programs of

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

. In December 1994, he was chosen as the

under the presidency of

Robert Kocharyan Robert Sedraki Kocharyan ( hy, Ռոբերտ Սեդրակի Քոչարյան ; born 31 August 1954) is an Armenian politician. He served as the President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic from 1994 to 1997 and Prime Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh fro ...

, the first President of the

. After serving for three years as Prime Minister until June 1998, Petrosyan took over the Presidency of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic from Kocharyan on 20 March 1997, when the latter was appointed as

. He continued to serve as president of the

for almost 5-and-a-half months until 8 September 1997, at the same time keeping his Prime Minister position, when

Arkadi Ghukasyan Arkadi Arshaviri Ghukasyan ( hy, Արկադի Արշավիրի Ղուկասյան, born 22 June 1957) was the second President of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. He was elected as the President on 8 September 1997 and re-elected i ...

was elected as third president by popular vote. Petrosyan then moved to

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

and was appointed the Deputy

Defence Minister of Armenia The Defence Minister of Armenia () is the head of the country's Ministry of Defence, who is charged with the political leadership of the Armed Forces of Armenia. The position was originally created in 1918 and was re-established in January 1992 f ...

, and in 1998 became the Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia. He was killed in the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting among other Armenian politicians in the hall of the

Armenian National Assembly Armenian National Assembly was the governing body of the Armenian millet in the Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρα� ...

Personal life

He was married and the father of four children named Emil, Seda, Liana, and Nver.

Awards

* Order of the Combat Cross, 1st degree (1999)

External links

Karabakh.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrosyan, Leonard 1952 births 1999 deaths People from Martuni Province Armenian State University of Economics alumni Presidents of the Republic of Artsakh Prime Ministers of the Republic of Artsakh Members of the National Assembly (Artsakh) Deaths by firearm in Armenia People murdered in Armenia Victims of the Armenian parliament shooting 1990s murders in Armenia 1999 crimes in Armenia 1999 murders in Asia 1999 murders in Europe