Artur Mkrtchyan | |
---|---|
Արթուր Մկրտչյան | |
Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic | |
In office 8 January 1992 – 14 April 1992 | |
Prime Minister | Oleg Yesayan |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Georgi Petrosian (acting) |
Personal details | |
Born | Ukhtadzor, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union | 16 February 1959
Died | 14 April 1992 Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic | (aged 33)
Political party | ARF |
Alma mater | Yerevan State University |
Artur Aslani Mkrtchyan (Armenian: Արթուր Ասլանի Մկրտչյան; 16 February 1959 – 14 April 1992) was the first Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, elected on 7 January 1992.[1] He made an important contribution to reinforcing the defensive capabilities of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, but was fatally shot under unclear circumstances in April 1992.
Artur Mkrtchyan was born in 1959 in the village of Ukhtadzor in the Hadrut District of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.[2] After graduating from the village secondary school in 1976, he entered the faculty of history at Yerevan State University.[2] After graduating from university, he conducted his post-graduate studies at the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography in Moscow.[2] From 1981 to 1983 he worked at the Armenia Ethnography Museum.[2] In 1986 he returned to his hometown to work as the director of the Hadrut Historical-Geological Museum.[2] In 1988 he defended his PhD thesis and received the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences.[2]
Mkrtchyan was an active participant in the Karabakh movement from its early days.[2] He joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) and after that party's victory in the 1991 Nagorno-Karabakh parliamentary election, he was elected the first Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on 7 January 1992.[2]
Mkrtchyan was killed in his apartment in Stepanakert under mysterious circumstances on 14 April 1992.[3] While an initial report by the NKR's interior minister, Armen Isagulov, stated that Mkrtchyan had been killed by unknown "gunmen," a later official report described his death as accidental.[4][5] In 2019, former commander of the NKR's army, Samvel Babayan, claimed that Mkrtchyan's death was a suicide․[6] No one has ever been prosecuted in connection with his death.[7] He was succeeded by Georgy Petrosyan as acting chairman of the Supreme Council.[4]
Mkrtchyan had two children. In 2020, Mkrtchyan was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Artsakh.[7]