Ashot Tsolaki Navasardyan (; March 28, 1950 – November 3, 1997) was an Armenian politician and military commander who founded the

Republican Party of Armenia The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA, ; , ''HHK'') is a National conservatism, national-conservative List of political parties in Armenia, political party in Armenia led by the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan. It was the first polit ...

. Navasardyan was born in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

and graduated from the Faculty of Law of

Yerevan State University Yerevan State University (YSU; , , ), also simply University of Yerevan, is the oldest continuously operating public university in Armenia. Founded in 1919, it is the largest university in the country. It is thus informally known as Armenia's ...

. From 1968 to 1990, he was a member of the underground

National Unity Party The National Unity Party, National United Party, Party of National Unity or National Unity Front may refer to: * National United Party of Afghanistan (founded 2003) * National Unity Party (Albania) * National United Party (Armenia), defunct * Natio ...

and its successor, the

Union for National Self-Determination Union for National Self-Determination () is an Armenian political party. It was founded in 1987 by Paruyr Hayrikyan, a Soviet dissident seeking independence for Armenia. History The party was founded in 1987 as the successor of the defunct Nati ...

, which sought to achieve Armenia's secession from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He was imprisoned several times by the Soviet authorities for his dissident activities, serving a total of 12 years in prisons. Navasardyan was an advocate of the ideas of the Armenian military leader and nationalist thinker

Garegin Nzhdeh Garegin Ter-Harutyunyan, better known by his ''nom de guerre'' Garegin Nzhdeh (, ; 1 January 1886 – 21 December 1955), was an Armenian statesman, military commander and nationalist revolutionary. As a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Fed ...

.Ashot Navasardyan would be 59, Aysor, March 28, 2009
/ref> With the rise of the

Karabakh movement The Karabakh movement (), also known as the Artsakh movement (), was a national mass movement in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh from 1988 to 1991 that advocated for the transfer of the mainly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast ...

and the Armenian independence movement, he and other members of the Union for National Self-Determination founded the Army of Independence, an armed group that engaged in violent clashes with Soviet authorities in Armenia and with Azerbaijani forces on the border with Azerbaijan and in Nagorno-Karabakh during the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic conflict, ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nag ...

. Navasardyan was elected the supreme commander of the Army of Independence. In 1990, he founded the Republican Party of Armenia, which he led until his death. He was elected to the Supreme Soviet of Armenia in the 1990 elections and to the

National Assembly of Armenia The National Assembly of Armenia (, ''Hayastani Hanrapetyut'yan Azgayin zhoghov'' or simply Ազգային ժողով, ԱԺ, ''Azgayin Zhoghov'', ''AZh''), also informally referred to as the Parliament of Armenia (խորհրդարան, ''khor ...

in the 1995 parliamentary elections. Navasardyan died from a heart attack on November 3, 1997. He is buried at

Yerablur Yerablur () or Yerablur Military Pantheon is a military cemetery located on a hilltop in the outskirts of Yerevan, Armenia. Since 1988, Yerablur has become the burial place of Armenian soldiers who died during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. His ...

military cemetery.

References

Ashot NAVASSARDIAN
at the National Assembly of Armenia Website 1950 births 1997 deaths Armenian nationalists Armenian modern pagans Armenian dissidents Republican Party of Armenia politicians Members of the National Assembly (Armenia) {{Armenia-politician-stub