Vazgen Manukyan

Vazgen Manukyan, born on February 13, 1946, is a prominent Armenian politician and mathematician who played a pivotal role in the country's political landscape during the late twentieth century. He co-founded the Karabakh Committee in February 1988, which spearheaded the movement for the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Soviet Armenia. His activism led to his arrest by Soviet authorities in December 1988, resulting in a six-month imprisonment in Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina prison.

Manukyan's political career took off when he was elected as the first chairman of the Pan-Armenian National Movement in October 1989. He served as Armenia's first Prime Minister from 1990 to 1991, a period marked by significant national upheaval. After resigning from the premiership in September 1991, he established the National Democratic Union (NDU) and became its chairman. His leadership extended to the military sector when he was appointed Minister of State and Minister of Defense in September 1992, during which he was instrumental in shaping the Armenian Armed Forces amidst the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

In the 1996 presidential elections, Manukyan emerged as a formidable challenger to incumbent President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, garnering forty-one percent of the votes amid allegations of electoral fraud. Despite his efforts, he faced defeat in subsequent presidential elections in 1998, 2003, and 2008. His political influence continued as he served as the Chairman of the Public Council of Armenia from March 2009 to December 2019 and later became the President of the Vernatun Socio-Political Club in 2019.

Following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and the resulting ceasefire agreement, Manukyan was nominated as the joint candidate for prime minister by a coalition of seventeen political parties in December 2020. This nomination came amid widespread protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. However, neither Manukyan nor the coalition participated in the 2021 parliamentary elections, marking a significant moment in Armenia's ongoing political evolution.