Bagrat A. Asatryan (, born February 2, 1956), also transliterated Bagrat Asatrian or Assatrian, is an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

economist and the former chairman of the

Central Bank A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

from 1994 to 1998. He is one of the architects of the modern-day

. On February 3, 1998 because of a political crisis in the country, Bagrat Asatryan resigned from his post with several of his key allies including the President Levon Ter-Petrossian, Vano Siradeghyan, Head of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

Babken Ararktsyan and

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

Alexander Arzumanyan Alexander Arzumanyan (; born 24 December 1959) is Armenia's first ambassador to the United States (from 1992 to 1993) and to the United Nations (from 1992 to 1996). He served as minister of foreign affairs from 1996 until his resignation, with P ...

Early life

Bagrat Asatryan was born in the

Armenian SSR The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia bordered the Soviet republics ...

. In 1977 he graduated from

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 ...

as an

Economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

. B. Asatryan worked as a scientific-research assistant and in 1985 received his Ph.D. in economics from the Institute of Economics at the Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

Life after independence

Asatryan was an activist of the revolutionary movement in Armenia in the late 1980s. In August 1990 Asatryan, already a member of the

Armenian National Movement The Armenian national movement ( ''Hay azgayin-azatagrakan sharzhum'') included social, cultural, but primarily political and military movements that reached their height during World War I and the following years, initially seeking improved statu ...

(ÐÐÞ), became a deputy to the Supreme Council of the First Convocation of Armenia, where he was the chair of the Standing Committee on Health and Social Affairs. In 1995 he was elected as a member of 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 1994 Asatryan was elected the chairman of the

Central Bank of Armenia The Central Bank of Armenia () is the central bank of Armenia with its headquarters in Yerevan. The CBA is an independent institution responsible for issuing all banknotes and coins in the country, overseeing and regulating the banking sector and ...

by the National Assembly. Some of CB’s main operations of this period were putting into circulation and stabilizing the newly implemented Armenian monetary value

Dram Dram, DRAM, or drams may refer to: Technology and engineering * Dram (unit), a unit of mass and volume, and an informal name for a small amount of liquor, especially whisky or whiskey * Dynamic random-access memory, a type of electronic semicondu ...

(AMD), constructing an entirely new banking system in the new market economy. Before him a parliamentary commission introduced the Armenian dram. Bagrat Asatryan is the author of the first Monetary Policy implemented by the CBA in 1995, he is also the initiator of several significant legislative pieces about the banking system in Armenia, including laws on "The Central Bank", "Banks and Banking", "Bank Bankruptcy", "Bank Secrecy", which were designed to regulate the relationships in the banking system and were adopted by the National Assembly in June 1996. In 1998 Dr. Asatryan and several of his key allies resigned after a political crisis, which was a result of the

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians until 2023, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbai ...

and disagreement over its solution among high government officials. After leaving the government Asatryan took several professional posts: serving as the President of the ssociation of Banks of Armenia(1998–1999) and the Executive Director of rmimpexBank(1999–2003). Since 1999 Dr. Asatryan is a full professor at

, faculty of Economics, department of Finance and Accounting. He is the author of more than 20 scholarly publications in Armenian, Russian and English. In 2005 as a head of a team of young professionals he published his more than 700 pages long book “Banking”, which serves as a textbook in YSU and is the only publication about Armenia’s banking system, its principles, history, evolution, transition to market economy etc. Bagrat Asatryan is married and has two sons.

External links

Bagrat Asatryan - Central Bank of Armenia
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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Asatryan, Bagrat 1956 births Living people Armenian economists Chairmen of the Central Bank of Armenia Members of the National Assembly (Armenia) Armenian corporate directors Textbook writers Yerevan State University alumni