Ashot Tsolaki Navasardyan (; March 28, 1950 – November 3, 1997) was an Armenian politician and military commander who founded the Republican Party of Armenia. Navasardyan was born in Yerevan and graduated from the Faculty of Law of Yerevan State University. 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, which sought to achieve Armenia's secession from the Soviet Union. 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.Ashot Navasardyan would be 59, Aysor, March 28, 2009
/ref> With the rise of the Karabakh movement 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, referred to in Armenia as the Artsakh Liberation War ( hy, Արցախյան ազատամարտ, Artsakhyan azatamart) was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in th ...

. 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 The Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR ( hy, ՀԽՍՀ Գերագույն խորհուրդ, HKhSH Geraguyn khorhurd; russian: Верховный Совет Армянской ССР) was the supreme soviet (main legislative institution) of the Ar ...

in the 1990 elections and to the National Assembly of Armenia in the 1995 parliamentary elections. Navasardyan died from a heart attack on November 3, 1997. He is buried at Yerablur 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