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Vazgen Manukyan | |
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Վազգեն Մանուկյան | |
![]() Manukyan in 2012 | |
1st Prime Minister of Armenia | |
In office 13 August 1990 – 22 November 1991 | |
President | Levon Ter-Petrosyan |
Preceded by | position established |
Succeeded by | Gagik Harutyunyan |
Acting Defence Minister of Armenia | |
In office 20 October 1992 – 21 August 1993 | |
President | Levon Ter-Petrosyan |
Preceded by | Vazgen Sargsyan |
Succeeded by | Serzh Sargsyan |
Personal details | |
Born | Leninakan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union | 13 February 1946
Political party | National Democratic Union |
Vazgen Mikayeli Manukyan (Armenian: Վազգեն Միքայելի Մանուկյան, born 13 February 1946) is an Armenian politician who served as the first Prime Minister of Armenia from 1990 to 1991. From 1992 to 1993, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, Manukyan was acting Defence Minister of Armenia.[1] He was also a member of Armenia's parliament from 1990 to 2007.[2][3][4][5]
Vazgen Manukyan was a co-founder and the coordinator of the Karabakh Committee (officially founded in February 1988), the body which led the Karabakh movement aimed at uniting Nagorno-Karabakh with Soviet Armenia.[6] He was arrested by Soviet authorities on December 10, 1988, along with other members of the Karabakh Committee, and spent 6 months in Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina prison.[7][8] He was elected the first chairman of the Pan-Armenian National Movement in October 1989.[9][10]
From 1990 to 1991, he served as the Prime Minister of Armenia.[6][1] On September 26, 1991, Vazgen Manukyan resigned as prime minister and founded his own party, the National Democratic Union (NDU),[11] and has since served as its chairman. In September 1992, he was appointed Minister of State and Minister of Defense, while managing the military–industrial complex of Armenia at the same time.[1] Under Vazgen Manukyan, the Armenian Armed Forces were formed, the course of the war changed in favor of the Armenian side.[12][6] He was dismissed from his post in August 1993.[13]
In the 1996 Armenian presidential elections, Vazgen Manukyan received the support of the major opposition parties and was the main challenger to incumbent President Levon Ter-Petrosyan. The 1996 elections were marred by widespread electoral fraud in favor of President Ter-Petrosyan. According to the official results, Manukyan received 41% of the votes, losing to Ter-Petrosyan without a runoff election. The opposition disputed the results of the elections and major protests broke out in Yerevan, which were suppressed by the police and military. Vazgen Manukyan lost further presidential elections in 1998, 2003 and 2008.[14][15][6]
From March 2009 to December 2019, he was the Chairman of the Public Council of Armenia.[16] Since 2019, he has been the President of the Vernatun Socio-Political Club.[17]
In the aftermath of the defeat of the Armenian side in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and the signing of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire agreement, a wave of protests broke out in Armenia demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.[18] On 3 December 2020, a coalition of 17 parliamentary and extra-parliamentary political parties formed the Homeland Salvation Movement and nominated Vazgen Manukyan as their joint candidate for the position of prime minister and to form a transitional government.[19][20] Ultimately, neither Vazgen Manukyan nor the Homeland Salvation Movement participated in the 2021 parliamentary elections.
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