- Leonard Petrosyan
Leonard Petrosyan (1953 – 1999) was the second president of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic for almost 6 months (20 March 2007 to 8 September 2007). He also served as Prime Minister of the Republic 1994-1997. He was killed in the armed attack on the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. He was serving as Deputy Prime Minister in the Republic of Armenia at the timeCareer
Leonard Petrosyan was born in
Martuni ,Nagorno-Karabakh in 1953. After serving briefly in the ranks of theSoviet Army , he studied in 1974 at the Yerevan Cooperation Institute and later on at the Yerevan Institute of National Economy. From 1975 until 1990, he worked in the system of common nutrition in an agricultural center run by the Martuni regional community of the Communist Party, a position he kept until 1990.He was active during the "Artsakh movement" campaign for autonomy and independence and in 1991 became the deputy chairman of Nagorno-Karabakh Regional Committee and appointed chairman of the regional council.
In 1992, he became the first deputy head of the department of special programs of Republic of Armenia. In 1994, he was chosen as the Prime Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic under the presidency of
Robert Kocharyan , the first-ever President of theNagorno-Karabakh Republic .After serving for three years as Prime Minister, Leonard Petrosyan took over the presidency of the republic from the incumbent
Robert Kocharyan on 20 March 1997, when the latter was appointed as Prime Minister in the Republic ofArmenia .He continued to serve as president of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic for almost 5-and-a-half months until 8 September 1997, at the same time keeping his Prime Minister position, whenArkadi Ghukasyan was elected as third president by popular vote.Petrosyan then moved to
Yerevan ,Armenia and was appointed the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, and in 1998 became the Deputy Prime Minister in the Republic of Armenia, He was killed in 1999 among other Armenian politicians in the hall of the Armenian National Assembly.He was married and father of 4 children.
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