ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

- CONTENT--
Levon Akopovich Ter-Petrosyan (born January 9, 1945, Aleppo, Syria) was a Soviet and Armenian statesman and politician, the first president of the Republic of Armenia (1991-1998), doctor of philology.

Biography

Ancestors
Father, Hakob Ter-Petrosyan. The ancestor of the family priest Petros on behalf of the Cilician Catholicos Hovhannes Ajnezi in 1720 moved from Sis to Musa Lehr. His paternal grandfather Petros Ter-Petrosyan was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Gnchakyan. Azatua Garibyan's mother. His maternal grandfather, Petros Garibyan, was a supporter of the Dashnaktsutyun party.

Early years
He was born in the Syrian city of Aleppo. In 1946, the family moved to the Armenian SSR. In 1963, Ter-Petrosyan entered the philological faculty of Yerevan State University. He played in the student amateur theater. In 1968 he graduated from the university and entered the postgraduate studies of the Manuk Abegyan Institute of Literature at the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR. Subsequently, he continued his postgraduate studies at the Leningrad Institute of Oriental Studies. In 1972 he defended his thesis on Armenian-Assyrian literary relations, becoming a candidate of philological sciences. During his studies in Leningrad, Ter-Petrosyan met his future wife Lyudmila Fraimovna Pliskovsky.

In 1972-1978 Ter-Petrosyan was a junior researcher at the Institute of Literature. Since 1978 he worked at the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts under the Council of Ministers of the Armenian SSR as a scientific secretary, and since 1985 as a senior researcher. In 1987, in Leningrad he defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences (the topic of the dissertation is “Armenian-Assyrian relations in the 4-5 centuries”). In parallel with his main work in Matenadaran, from 1985 to 1988 he taught at the Echmiadzin Theological Seminary. Since 1988, Levon Ter-Petrosyan was a member of the Karabakh Committee, which demanded the withdrawal of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region from the jurisdiction of the Azerbaijan SSR, and one of the leaders of the Armenian National Movement (ANM). In December 1988, along with other members of the Karabakh Committee, he was arrested. He was accused of “organizing mass riots” and “inciting ethnic hatred.” He was released in May 1989 under public pressure.

In August 1989, Ter-Petrosyan was elected deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR, and in November 1989 - chairman of the ALM. In August 1990 he became Chairman of the Supreme Council of Armenia of the new convocation. Under his chairmanship, the Declaration of Independence of Armenia was adopted on August 23, 1990.

President of Armenia

On October 17, 1991, Ter-Petrosyan was elected the first president of the independent Republic of Armenia. For his candidacy voted 83.4 percent of voters. He took office on November 11. In 1991-1995 he headed the work of the constitutional commission. The text of the constitution developed by the commission was adopted in a popular referendum in July 1995.

In 1992, his presidential administration