Samvel Sergeyi Shahramanyan (born 1 December 1978) is an Armenian politician who served as the 5th and final president of the

Republic of Artsakh Artsakh ( ), officially the Republic of Artsakh or the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh ( ), was a breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory was internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Between 1991 and 2023, Artsakh cont ...

from 10 September 2023 to 21 May 2025. He also served as the leader of the Republic of Artsakh government in exile. He was also

State Minister Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior ministers ...

from August to September 2023. He also served as Minister of Military Patriotic Upbringing, Youth, Sports and Tourism, Secretary of the Security Council of Artsakh and a Major General in the

Artsakh Defence Army The Artsakh Defence Army () was the defence force of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. Established in 1992, it united previously disorganized defence units which were formed in the early 1990s. It was disbanded on 20 September 2023 under t ...

Early life and career

Shahramanyan was born in

Stepanakert Stepanakert officially Khankendi is a city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. It was the capital city of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh prior to the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in ...

on 1 December 1978, in what was then the

Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was an Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union, autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic that was created on July 7, 1923. Its capital was the city of Stepanakert. The majori ...

. He graduated in 1999 from the economics department of the

Artsakh University Artsakh State University () was a university in Stepanakert, the oldest and largest university in the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh. Over the course of its 50-year history, Artsakh State University has produced over 20,000 graduates in 6 ...

. From 1996 and 1999, he served in the

Artsakh Defense Army The Artsakh Defence Army () was the defence force of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh. Established in 1992, it united previously disorganized defence units which were formed in the early 1990s. It was disbanded on 20 September 2023 under t ...

and then moved to the Artsakh National Security Service, of which he was director between 2018 and 2020 upon appointment by President

Bako Sahakyan Bako Sahaki Sahakyan (; born 30 August 1960) is an Armenian politician who served as the third president of the ''de facto''-independent Republic of Artsakh from 2007 to 2020. He is the longest-serving president of Artsakh. He was first elected ...

Political career

Ministerial positions in Artsakh

In May 2020, Shahramanyan was appointed by President

Arayik Harutyunyan Arayik Vladimiri Harutyunyan (; born 14 December 1973) is an Armenian politician who served as the fourth president of the Republic of Artsakh from May 2020 to September 2023. Under his predecessor Bako Sahakyan, he served as the sixth and last ...

as Minister of Military Patriotic Upbringing, Youth, Sports and Tourism as part of the latter's

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

. On 29 August 2023, Harutyunyan stated that he was considering resigning and going to serve in Artsakh's militia. On 31 August, Harutyunyan announced his resignation as president of the Republic of Artsakh along with

Gurgen Nersisyan. Before his resignation, in his final decree, Harutyunyan appointed Shahramanyan as the new State Minister, giving him broad powers.

2023 election

On 6 September 2023, it became known that three opposition parliamentary factions (

Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

Armenian Revolutionary Federation The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (, abbr. ARF (ՀՅԴ) or ARF-D), also known as Dashnaktsutyun (Armenians, Armenian: Դաշնակցություն, Literal translation, lit. "Federation"), is an Armenian nationalism, Armenian nationalist a ...

and Democratic Party of Artsakh) nominated Shahramanyan as their presidential candidate. Later Shahramanyan's candidacy was supported by the largest faction of the Parliament, Free Motherland-UCA. In the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

held on 9 September, Shahramanyan, who was the sole candidate, was elected in a 22–1 vote out of 23 deputies present.

Azerbaijani offensive, exodus and dissolution of Artsakh

Nine days after Shahramanyan was sworn in, Azerbaijan launched a

military offensive An offensive is a military operation that seeks through an aggressive projection of armed forces to occupy or recapture territory, gain an objective or achieve some larger strategic, operational, or tactical goal. Another term for an offensiv ...

against Artsakh. The following day, the Artsakhi government reached a ceasefire agreement and agreed to disarm. On 24 September, a mass evacuation of ethnic-Armenian civilians began, citing fears of persecution and

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...

if they remain. On 28 September, Shahramanyan signed a decree stating that all state institutions would be dissolved by 1 January 2024, bringing the existence of the Republic of Artsakh to an end.

Exile

On 4 October, it was reported that Shahramanyan had left Artsakh for Armenia. He was spotted 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 ...

on 16 October. On 22 December 2023, Shahramanyan said that there was no official document stipulating the dissolution of government institutions, and his office stated that it was "empty paper". In March 2024, Shahramanyan declared the Government of Artsakh a

government-in-exile A government-in-exile (GiE) is a political group that claims to be the legitimate government of a sovereign state or semi-sovereign state, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile usu ...

alongside their institutions. This declaration was disavowed by Armenian Prime Minister

Nikol Pashinyan Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan (born 1 June 1975) is an Armenian politician who is serving as the 16th and current Prime Minister of Armenia, prime minister of Armenia since 8 May 2018. A journalist by profession, Pashinyan founded his own newspaper in ...

, calling it a "security threat". On 21 May 2025, his presidential term expired. As a result, Ashot Danielyan, who was also elected President of the National Assembly in exile, assumed presidential powers.

Personal life

Shahramanyan is married and has three children.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shahramanyan, Samvel 1978 births Living people People from Stepanakert Presidents of the Republic of Artsakh State Ministers of the Republic of Artsakh Artsakh military personnel Artsakh University alumni Government ministers of the Republic of Artsakh