Zohrab Mnatsakanyan


Zohrab Mnatsakanyan is an Armenian diplomatand the current Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mnatsakanyan previously served as Armenia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Early life and education

Mnatsakanyan was born on 20 March 1966 in Yerevan. In 1989 he had an academic visit and internship at the Embassy of Soviet Union in Washington, D.C., United States. In 1990, at the age of about twenty-four, Mnatsakanyan graduated from the Faculty of International Business Relations of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. A year later, he received Master's degree in Western European Politics at the Faculty of Politics, Economics and Social Studies at the Victoria University of Manchester in the UK.

Career

Mnatsakanyan started his diplomatic career in 1991 as a Third then Second Secretary in the European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. Subsequently, he moved to Embassy of Armenia in the United Kingdom in 1993 serving as Second then First Secretary until 1997. From 1995 to 1997, he was also the First Secretary of the Embassy in the Holy See with residence in London. Mnatsakanyan returned to Armenia in 1997 where he served as Private Secretary to the Prime Minister for less than a year, until he returned to Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served as Head of the First European Department until 1998, then Head of the Department of Europe until 1999. In 1999, he joined the office of President of Armenia as the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Department until 2002.
Mnatsakanyan was appointed as Armenian Ambassador to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva in 2002 serving until 2008. At the same time, he served as Armenian ambassador to Switzerland. Subsequently, he was appointed as Armenian ambassador to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France in 2008 serving until 2011. He was appointed as Deputy Foreign Minister in 2011 and served until 2014, before serving again as Ambassador to the United Nations, this time in New York, until 2018.
On 12 May 2018, he was appointed Foreign Minister of Armenia by a decree of the Armenian President Armen Sarkissian.

Personal Life

Mnatsakanyan speaks Armenian, English, Russian and French.
Mnatsakanyan is married with two sons.

Awards

In 2011, he was awarded the Mkhitar Gosh medal for his public service.