By Susanna Petrosyan, exclusively to VK
Chess player politician
Even before being elected parliamentary speaker in 1990 and president in 1991, Ter-Petrosyan was a political leader and was one of the directors of the ‘Karabakh’ committee.
As president and as opposition leader Ter-Petrosyan always acted in the framework of the Constitution. However, it is this restraint that Ter-Petrosyan’s radical opponents often criticize. Meanwhile, if we take into account all previously described qualities we can easily describe Ter-Petrosyan as a politician – chess player.
He possesses a trait generally rare among Armenians – pragmatism and rationalism. So when he takes any political decision, emotions have almost nothing to do with it. Even though he grew up in a family whose ancestors lived through the genocide, he is a supporter of establishing diplomatic relations with Turkey. And even though he was the president who won the Karabakh war, he believes that the conflict should be finally resolved peacefully and in a compromise, so that Azerbaijans and Armenians could live in peace.
Radicals have always accused Ter-Petrosyan of ‘national betrayeal’, but that didn’t make him change his mind. He also champions the right of nations to self-determination and despite all the allegations he has never signed a single document that would put the rights of Karabakh Armenians for self-determination into question.
Ter-Petrosyan demonstrated substantial resolve and rigidity in his policy towards the oldest Armenian political party – the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. In 1994 the activity of all the party’s institutions was suspended. Another instance in which the ex-president’s character showed itself took place in 1995, when Russia was lobbying one of the presidential candidates. Despite his friendship with Boris Yeltsin, Ter-Petrosyan could say ‘no’ to him. However, in 1996, when the elections took place In Russia, he supported Yeltsin by saying that “‘while there’s Yeltsin there’s the CIS”.
Ter-Petrosyan is also a distinguished scholar. He has a PhD in philology, he can speak Russian, French and German, he is familiar with Latin, Greek, Arabic, Assyrian and ancient Armenian languages.
He has authored more than 70 scholarly papers (written in Russian, Armenian and French) touching upon Medieval Armenian history, the Cilician Kingdom and Armenian-Assyrian connections. He is also a member of Armenian Writers Union and an honorary member of US and Italian universities. All these achievements were achieved by him before his political success.
During his political ‘vacation’ Ter-Petrosyan worked on a 6-volume publication “Armenians and the Crusaders”, in which he analyses the history of the Armenian Cilician Kingdon in the 11-14th centuries. For now only 2 volumes have been issued.
As a private person Ter-Petrosyan has always been very attentive to his family. He and his wife live on his presidential pension, they already have 3 grandchildren. Ter-Petrosyan is very modest in his everyday life. His hobbies are books and gardening. In the epoch when he was the President there was a lot of cases of corruption and misappropriation of government property by state officials, but not even the most radical opponent of Ter-Petrosyan could accuse him of any abuses of power. He had taken no part in the privatization campaign either and never accepted any foreign award while occupying the presidential office.
Note (by “VK”):
Levon Ter-Petrossian was born on January 9, 1945, in the Syrian town of Aleppo. He was the first President of Armenia from 1991 to 1998. Due to some economic and political problems, he resigned on February 3, 1998, and was succeeded by Robert Kocharyan.
In 1968, Ter-Petrossian graduated from the Oriental Studies Department of Yerevan State University. In 1972, he completed his postgraduate studies at the Leningrad State University. In 1987, he received his doctoral degree from the same university. In 1972-1978, Ter-Petrossian worked as junior researcher at the Literature Institute of Armenia named after Manouk Abeghian. In 1978-1985, he held the post of science secretary at Matenadaran named after Saint Mesrob Mashdots. Since 1985, Ter-Petrossian has been working at
He is married to Lyudmila Ter-Petrossian. They have one son, David Ter-Petrossian, and three grandchildren.
Ter-Petrossian's political career started in the 1960s. In 1966 he was arrested for his active participation in an April 24 demonstration. In February 1988, he led Matenadaran's Karabakh committee. In May of the same year, he became involved with the Armenian Committee of the Karabakh movement. From December 10, 1988, to May 31, 1989, he was under arrest in Matrosskaya Tishina together with other members of the Karabakh Committee.
In 1989, Ter-Petrossian was elected Member of the Board of the Pan-Armenian National Movement. Later on, he became the Chairman of the Board.
On August 27, 1989, he was elected as deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR. He was re-elected as deputy on May 20, 1990. On August 4 of the same year, he becameChairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Armenia.
Ter-Petrossian was popularly elected the first President of the newly-independent Republic of Armenia on October 16, 1991 (he won 83% of the votes) and re-elected on September 22, 1996. His re-election was marred by allegations of electoral fraud reported by the opposition and supported by many international observers. His popularity waned further as the opposition started blaming him for the economic quagmire that Armenia's post-Soviet economy was in.
On September 21, 2007, Ter-Petrossian gave his first public speech in nearly ten years at an event in Yerevan marking the 16th anniversary of Armenia's declaration of independence. In this speech he was strongly critical of Kocharyan. Subsequently, Ter-Petrossian officially announced his candidacy in the 2008 presidential election in a speech in Yerevan on 26 October 2007.
The final results of the election, which was held on February 19, 2008, officially showed Ter-Petrossian in second place with 21.5% of the vote. Then he and his supporters accused the government of rigging the election and claimed victory; beginning on February 20, he led continuous protests involving tens of thousands of his supporters in Yerevan. On the early morning of March 1, reportedly acting on evidence of firearms in the camp, the authorities moved in to inspect the tents set up by demonstrators. Law enforcement agents then violently dispersed the hundreds of protestors camped in. Ter-Petrossian was placed under de facto house arrest, not being allowed to leave his home, though the authorities later denied the allegations. A few hours later, tens of thousands of protestors or more gathered at Miyasnikyan Square to protest the government's act. Police, overwhelmed by the sheer size of the crowd, pulled out. A state of emergency was implemented by President Kocharyan at 5pm, allowing the army to be moved into the capital. At night, a few thousand protestors barricaded themselves using commandeered municipal buses. As a result of skirmishes with the police, ten people died.
In 2011, Ter-Petrossian again took a leading role in protests that erupted in Armenia as part of a wave of regional unrest. As leader of the Armenian National Congress opposition bloc, formed two years prior to the outbreak of protests, Ter-Petrossian accused President Serzh Sargsyan, elected in the disputed 2008 election, of being "illegitimate" and called for the release of political prisoners, the resignation of the government, and a full inquiry into the violence that claimed the lives of ten of his supporters in 2008.
