Levon Hakobi Ter-Petrosyan (Armenian: Լևոն Հակոբի Տեր-Պետրոսյան; born 9 January 1945), also known by his initials LTP, is an Armenian politician and historian who served as the first president of Armenia from 1991 until his resignation in 1998. A senior researcher at the Matenadaran institute, he rose to prominence as a leading figure of the Karabakh movement for the unification of the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, which began in 1988. After Armenia declared independence from the Soviet Union in September 1991, Ter-Petrosyan was elected by a landslide as the country's first president in the 1991 Armenian presidential election, receiving an overwhelming public support. In his role as a head of state, he led the country through the First Nagorno-Karabakh War with neighboring Azerbaijan. He was reelected in the 1996 presidential election, which was marred by accusations of electoral fraud, sparking mass protests led by runner-up Vazgen Manukyan. The mass rallies were suppressed by military force. Due to disagreements with key members of his government over a peace proposal for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, especially Defence Minister Vazgen Sargsyan and Prime Minister Robert Kocharyan, Ter-Petrosyan resigned on 3 February 1998. From his resignation up until 2007, Ter-Petrosyan was inactive in the political scene. However, he made a political comeback in September 2007 and ran for president in 2008. He faced one of his former government members, then-Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan. According to official results, he earned 21.5% of the total vote. Ter-Petrosyan claimed the elections were rigged and led thousands of his supporters in mass protests against the alleged electoral fraud and called for new elections. After a week of mass protests, the government used police and military force to disperse his supporters, resulting in the deaths of ten people on 1 March 2008. On 1 August 2008, Ter-Petrosyan founded the Armenian National Congress (ANC), with more than a dozen political parties and non-governmental organizations joining forces. Being the main opposition party in Armenia at the time, the ANC was out of the parliament and was primarily involved in street protests against Serzh Sargsyan's government. They organized mass rallies in 2011, forcing the government to grant several political concessions. In parliamentary elections in 2012, the ANC received 7.1% of the popular vote, gaining 7 seats. Ter-Petrosyan's party lost those seats in the following elections and has not entered parliament since. He led the ANC's electoral list during snap parliamentary elections in June 2021, where the party again failed to enter parliament.
Early life and education Ter-Petrosyan was born on 9 January 1945 in Aleppo, Syria, to an Armenian family descended from a long line of priests living near Musa Dagh in the Hatay region, now located in southern Turkey. His family took part in the armed resistance at Musa Dagh during the Armenian genocide before fleeing to Syria. His father, Hakob Ter-Petrosyan, was first a member of the Hunchakian Party and later a founding member of the Syrian Communist Party. He had three brothers, Telman (1936–1997), Petros (1938–2013), and Kamo (born 1948), as well as a younger sister, Iskuhi (1953–2015). His family emigrated to Soviet Armenia in 1947, when he was still an infant, just before the birth of his only living younger brother, Kamo, and one grandchild, Nerses Ter-Petrosyan. In 1969, he graduated from the Oriental Studies Department of Yerevan State University. In 1972, he completed his postgraduate studies at Leningrad State University. In 1987, he received his doctoral degree from the same university. From 1972 to 1979, Ter-Petrosyan worked as junior researcher at the Manuk Abeghyan Literature Institute of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. From 1979 to 1984, he held the position of science secretary at Matenadaran, a research institution named after Saint Mesrop Mashtots. Since 1984, he has worked at Matenadaran as a senior researcher.
Academic career Ter-Petrosyan wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Assyrian language and its ties to Armenian. In addition, he is the author of more than 30 books, about 80 scientific articles in Armenian, French, and Russian, as well as thousands of political publications in the multilingual press (speeches, articles, interviews, press conferences, etc.). He is a member of the Writers Union of Armenia, the French Asian Society, the Venice Academy of Mekhitarist, and a recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of La Verne, the University of Sofia, Paris-Sorbonne University, and the University of Strasbourg.
Karabakh movement and the independence of Armenia
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