Levon Ter-Petrosyan

Inauguration of Ter-Petrosyan as president in 1991.

Ter-Petrosyan was elected the first President of the newly independent Republic of Armenia on 16 October 1991, receiving 83% of the vote. On 18 October 1991, he signed onto Gorbachev's failed attempt to form an economic community out of the collapsing Soviet Union and preserve the economic ties between the republics (only 8 of the 15 republics agreed to sign). Ter-Petrosyan then brought Armenia into the Commonwealth of Independent States which formed after the formal abolition of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Ter-Petrosyan appointed Vazgen Sargsyan the first Defense Minister of independent Armenia in December 1991.[11] On 28 January 1992, the Armenian government passed the historical decree "On the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia", which formally created the Armed Forces of Armenia.[12][13] [10] In late 1991 and early 1992, the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh expanded into a full-scale war. With the rise of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, in March 1992, Sargsyan announced that Armenia needed a 30,000-strong army for maintaining security. Under Ter-Petrosyan's leadership as the commander-in-chief on 9 May 1992, the Armenian forces recorded their first major military success in Nagorno-Karabakh with the capture of Shusha. Another significant victory for the Armenian forces was recorded weeks later with the capture of Lachin,[14] which connects Armenia proper with Nagorno-Karabakh. [15] In the summer of 1992, following the launch of Operation Goranboy, the Armenian forces had major losses. Ter-Petrosyan dismissed Defense Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, as between October 1992 and March 1993 Sargsyan served as the Presidential Adviser on Defence Affairs and the Presidential Envoy to Border Regions of Armenia, Ter-Petrosyan appointed his comrade-turned-rival Vazgen Manukyan to the post. According to Vazgen Manukyan, on several occasions, the more cautious Ter-Petrosyan was, he deliberately not fully informed about the extent of the Armenian military's participation in operations in Nagorno-Karabakh. In early April 1993, the Armenian forces captured Kelbajar, a city outside the originally contested areas, causing international attention to the conflict. Turkey closed its border with Armenia, while the United Nations passed a resolution condemning the act.[16] Vazgen Manukyan was dismissed from his post in August 1993. In the summer of 1993, Armenian forces gained more territories and, by August controlled Fizuli, Jebrail, and Zangelan.[17] It was estimated that during Ter-Petrosian's presidency, the significant amount of military expenditure, played a key role in the outcome of the war and the formation of the army. By early 1994, both countries were devastated by the war. On 5 May, the Bishkek Protocol was signed by the heads of the parliaments of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, backed by Armenia, established de facto control of these lands. The war ended in an Armenian victory with the signing of a ceasefire agreement in May 1994 by representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Despite Ter-Petrosyan's efforts to establish normal relations with Turkey, which included arranging for the transport of wheat to Armenia from the EU through Turkish territory and attending the funeral of Turkish president Turgut Özal in Ankara, the capture of Kalbajar district by Armenian forces in April 1993 significantly worsened relations with Turkey. That month Turkey closed its border with Armenia.[4]^: 213 As on other occasions, Vazgen Manukyan.[4]^: 212 deliberately presented only a small part of the Kalbajar operation to Ter-Petrosyan. The Armenian-Turkish border remains closed to this day and the two countries have no diplomatic relations.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union took place as a result and against the backdrop of general economic stagnation, even regression. As the Gosplan, which had set up production chains to cross SSR lines, broke down, the inter-republic economic connections were also disrupted, leading to an even more serious breakdown of the post-Soviet economies. Armenia suffered severe economic hardship in the first years following independence, It is difficult to overstate the calamity that faced Armenia in 1991-93. The country, land-locked and with few natural resources, was beginning the transition from a centrally-planned to a market economy, with very limited institutional capacity. As a result of the conflict raging with Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh (NK), an ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan, refugees from Azerbaijan was streaming into Armenia. At the same time, Azerbaijan imposed a trade embargo, shutting off most supplies of energy and other critical goods (the main natural gas pipelines which supplied Armenia through Azerbaijan were closed) due to the full-scale war. The border with Turkey, which was sympathetic to Azerbaijan, was closed, and the main routes into the country to the north through Georgia were subject to frequent interdiction and the route through Georgia was frequently closed due to civil unrest there.[4]^: 205 As Armenia was deeply integrated with the Soviet economy and had the highest level of imports of any Soviet republic.[10] Armenia's GDP declined drastically from 1991 to 1993 because of these factors, and fuel shortages were ubiquitous. The worst years of the energy crisis have been dubbed the "dark and cold years" in Armenia, alleviated after the restarting of Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant in October 1995. In 1992, Ter-Petrosyan's prime minister Hrant Bagratyan adopted an economic reform program to rapidly marketize the Armenian economy. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union from 1991 to 1993, Armenia's income decline of 63 percent was greater than that of any Former Soviet Union country except Georgia. The average decline for the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS, excluding the Baltics) was 51 percent. The reform adopted by Hrant Bagratyan also made a good start on developing the basic legal framework necessary for a market economy. The Property Law enacted in October 1991, provided a legal basis for companies and a basic commercial code. All legal restrictions on private entry and competition in wholesale trade were removed. And the Enterprise Privatization Law (July 1992) provided that a privatization program be developed every year to sell remaining state-owned firms, including large firms. He was qualified as Leader of the Armenian economic reforms end of the 20th century, defined by the World Bank as one of the best among former Soviet Union republics and countries of Eastern Europe. Armenia's economic hardships during Ter-Petrosyan's presidency made him deeply unpopular among much of the population, and some 693,999.00 people emigrated, nevertheless, it was estimated that the emigration numbers continued to grow after his resignation.

Ter-Petrosyan's first term also saw significant tension between his government and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), a nationalist political party which holds enormous influence in the Armenian diaspora and had established itself as Ter-Petrosyan's main opposition. On 29 June 1992, Ter-Petrosyan delivered a televised address where he accused the ARF of collaboration with the KGB and pilfering funds raised from the diaspora intended for Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Two years later, on 28 December 1994, Ter-Petrosyan declared that a plot by the ARF to violently overthrow the government had been uncovered. The party was banned from the Republic of Armenia and its offices were raided by police.[18] Thirty-one ARF members, who would later be known as the "Dro Group", an alleged secret wing of the ARF, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government, committing several assassinations, and drug trafficking; all were found guilty.[19] The ban on the ARF was lifted by Ter-Petrosyan's successor Robert Kocharyan soon after Ter-Petrosyan's resignation.[19]

Although Ter-Petrosyan was initially expected to win the 1996 presidential election by a large margin due to the opposition being divided, three other candidates dropped out of the race and endorsed Vazgen Manukyan.[20] According to the official results, Ter-Petrosyan received about 52%, just above the 50% required to win without a runoff election.[20] His reelection was marred by allegations of electoral fraud reported by the opposition and supported by many international observers. On 25 September 1996, around 200,000 people in Yerevan came out to protest the election results, then stormed the parliament building and beat the speaker and deputy speaker of parliament following a speech by Vazgen Manukyan.[20] Tanks and troops were brought into Yerevan to end the protests. On the same day, Defence Minister Vazgen Sargsyan stated that "even if they [the opposition] win 100 percent of the votes, neither the Army nor the National Security and Interior Ministry would recognize such political leaders."[4]^: 258 Later in January 1999, Ter-Petrosyan's interior minister at the time of the election Vano Siradeghyan admitted that the government had resorted to vote-rigging to secure Ter-Petrosyan's victory without a runoff election and stated that after the crackdown, Ter-Petrosyan fell into a three-month depression.[21][22] According to Siradeghyan, "the whole state apparatus was demoralized, paralyzed and no government was formed during [the ensuing] three months."[22] Ter-Petrosyan's popularity waned further as the opposition started blaming him for the economic quagmire that Armenia's post-Soviet economy was in.

Ter-Petrosyan was forced to step down in February 1998 after advocating a compromised settlement of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh which many Armenians regarded as undermining their security. Ter-Petrosyan's key ministers, namely then-Prime Minister Robert Kocharyan, Defense Minister Vazgen Sargsyan and Interior Minister Serzh Sargsyan, refused to accept a peace plan for Karabakh put forward by international mediators in September 1997.[23] The leadership of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic were also opposed to the plan. The plan, accepted by Ter-Petrosyan and Azerbaijan's leader Heydar Aliyev, called for a "phased" settlement of the conflict which would postpone an agreement on Karabakh's status, the main stumbling block. The "phased" approach envisioned the return of most of the Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani territories around Nagorno-Karabakh in exchange for the deployment of OSCE peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts in the first and second phases, followed by the lifting of the Azerbaijani and Turkish blockades of Armenia in the third stage, and leaving for last the issues of Nagorno-Karabakh's status, the Lachin Corridor, and the return of displaced persons.[23] When Levon Ter-Petrosyan stepped down from the presidency, he compared himself to the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and stated that he was resigning was to avoid destabilizing the country.[24] Commenting on the circumstances of his resignation in 2021, Ter-Petrosyan insisted that Vazgen Sargsyan and Kocharyan were "ready for civil war" if he did not resign.[25]

On 21 September 2007, Ter-Petrosyan made 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 President Kocharyan. Subsequently, Ter-Petrosyan officially announced his candidacy in the 2008 presidential election in a speech in Yerevan on 26 October 2007. He accused Kocharyan's government of massive corruption, involving the theft of "at least three to four billion dollars" over the previous five years. He was critical of the government's claims of strong economic growth and argued that Kocharyan and his prime minister, Serzh Sargsyan, had come to accept a solution to the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh that was effectively the same solution that he had proposed ten years earlier. A number of opposition parties rallied behind him after his return to the political arena, including the People's Party of Armenia led by Stepan Demirchyan, the Republic Party led by Aram Sargsyan,[26] the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, "Azadakrum" movement for Jirair Sefilian, the "New Times" Party, and Raffi Hovannisian's Heritage Party.[27]

Mass protests at Freedom Square (left) and near the French embassy (right).

Final results from the election, which was held on 19 February 2008, officially showed Ter-Petrosyan in second place with 21.5% of the vote. Then he and his supporters accused the government of rigging the election and claimed victory;[28] beginning on 20 February he led continuous protests involving tens of thousands of his supporters in Yerevan.[29] In the early morning hours of 1 March, 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 hundreds of protestors. Ter-Petrosyan was placed under de facto house arrest, not being allowed to leave his home, though the authorities later denied the allegations.[30] A few hours later, tens of thousands of protestors or more gathered at Myasnikyan 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 17:00, 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 the clashes, eight protestors and two policemen died.[31] Ter-Petrosyan addressed his supporters by phone at around 2-3 a.m. on March 2, telling them to go home to avoid further casualties.[32] On March 5, Ter-Petrosyan appealed to the Constitutional Court to have the election declared invalid, which was rejected.[32]

Levon Ter-Petrosyan led the Armenian National Congress (ANC) during the 2012 parliamentary election. The ANC won 7.08% (106,903) of the popular vote.[36]

The ANC held its convention on 22 December 2012. Ter-Petrosyan talked about groups promoting pro-Western and pro-Russian divisions within the Armenian society and the political parties calling them "dangerous forces". Ter-Petrosyan did not announce whether he will run for president in February 2013.[37] Few days after the convention on 25 December 2012, Ter-Petrosyan gave Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun an interview eventually declaring his decision not to run for the office. He claimed that "dozens of arguments are being put forward by those advocating and opposing my nomination, but the most important argument has been avoided. Can anyone who has respect for his people vie for a presidential post at the age of 68? Such things usually do not happen in developed democratic countries ... everything is concentrated in the hands of a bunch of criminals who have usurped power."[38]

The official ANC statement on 27 December 2012 said that they are not participating in the upcoming presidential election in any form. The ANC claimed that the participation in the election is "legitimization of the illegal regime".[39] Rumors about Ter-Petrosyan's possible retirement from active politics spread soon after his 25 December announcement. Armenians newspapers argued that Levon Zurabyan, the ANC speaker, could become his successor.[40]

On 7 February 2013, Ter-Petrosyan gave another interview to the Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun daily newspaper. He acknowledged that the ANC cannot continue its activities with the same structure. He admitted that the alliance had "internal fermentations"[41] and called "various political forces and non-partisan individuals of the Congress to merge into one single political party."[42]

The presidential election was held on 18 February 2013. Voting in a polling station in central Yerevan, Ter-Petrosyan said the journalists he voted for the "sake of the Republic of Armenia."[43] According to the official results, incumbent Serzh Sargsyan won with over 58% of the vote. Raffi Hovannisian, the main opposition candidate who earned 37% of the total, claimed victory and started mass protests the next day. On 23 February 2013, Ter-Petrosyan addressed the gathered at the Pan-Armenian National Movement party convention. He claimed Hovannisian won the election and accused incumbent Sargsyan in rigging the election. Talking about Hovannisian's post-election protests, Ter-Petrosyan stated "I see words, I see speeches, but there is no action, no plan of actions."[44]

On 13 April 2013, the Armenian National Congress was officially transformed from an alliance of 18 original parties into a single party, on the base of the Pan-Armenian National Movement. During his speech at the founding convention, Ter-Petrosyan blamed Hovannisian for having no political agenda in his protests. In particular, Ter-Petrosyan said "during the current post-election period we have seen everything but political processes".[45]

The ANC, now a party rather than an alliance, went to the 2013 Yerevan City Council election alone. Their list was headed by Yerevan's former mayor Vahagn Khachatryan.[46] ANC failed to pass the 6% threshold by gaining only 1.2%.

Ter-Petrosyan led the ANC's electoral list in the June 2021 snap parliamentary elections.[2] Ter-Petrosyan announced that he would not take up his parliamentary mandate if the ANC enters parliament but fails to achieve a majority.[47] The ANC received 19,647 votes in the 2021 election, amounting to 1.54% of the vote, below the 5% threshold required to enter parliament.[48]