Arayik Harutyunyan


Arayik Harutyunyan is a politician, President of Artsakh, former State Minister and former Prime Minister of the Republic of Artsakh. He was the last Prime Minister of the country before the office of Prime Minister was abolished in 2017.

Early life

Harutyunyan was born in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union, in 1973. He attended Yerevan State Institute of Economy in 1990 and two years after, in 1992, joined the self-defence forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and took part in Nagorno-Karabakh War. After the war, he moved from Yerevan State Institute of Economy to Artsakh State University Faculty of Economics and graduated in 1995. Three years later, in 1998, he finished his post-graduate course at Artsakh State University.

Career

Harutyunyan started his career at the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Artsakh in 1994, serving as Assistant to the Minister. In 1997, he left the ministry and started his career in the private sector, in Armagrobank, working there until 2004.

In National Assembly

Harutyunyan co-founded the Free Motherland party in 2005 which took part in the 2005 parliamentary election, winning 10 out of 33 seats in the National Assembly. He also served as the Chairman of Free Motherland and the Free Motherland faction in the National Assembly. Harutyunyan headed the Commission on Financial, Budget and Economy Management in National Assembly.

Premiership

In 2007, he was appointed Prime Minister by then-President Bako Sahakyan. His first speech as Prime Minister was full of promises to revive the economy, democracy and social justice in the unrecognised country. The urgent steps that he promised to take included ‘fighting against corruption, protectionism, the clan system and social evils'. After 2017 constitutional referendum, Artsakh was transformed from semi-presidential system into a presidential system and the office of the Prime Minister was abolished.
Harutyunyan remained in the Sahakyan government and was appointed as State Minister.

Presidency

He participated in and won the 2020 Artsakhian general election, thereby becoming the 4th President of Artsakh. During the first week of his presidency, he signed two highly publicized executive orders: The first one changed the seat of the National Assembly of Artsakh from Stepanakert to Shushi, while the second made all tertiary education in Artsakh free.

Honours and awards