Nairi Hunanyan


Nairi Hunanyan led an armed attack on the Armenian Parliament on October 27, 1999.

Early life and education

Hunanyan was born in 1965 in Yerevan. He graduated from the Department of Philology of Yerevan State University.

Career

In 1988 he became an active participant of the Armenian national liberation movement and was one of the founders of the Alliance of Armenian Students. He was a former member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. According to the ARF, Hunanyan was expelled from the party in 1992 for misconduct and had not been in any association with the ARF since then. Later he founded and managed the Horizon information agency. From 1994 to 1997 he lived in Crimea, Ukraine, teaching the Armenian language at a school in Yevpatoria. He returned to Armenia in 1997.
On October 27, 1999, he, along with four other gunmen, entered the Parliament, killed the prime minister Vazgen Sargsyan, parliamentary speaker Karen Demirchyan and six other officials.
In his statement, Nairi Hunanyan accused the government of leading Armenia into political and economic ruin.
The attackers surrendered on October 28. The five gunmen were later each sentenced to eight life sentences.