Vazgen Zaveni Sargsyan (Armenian: Վազգեն Զավենի Սարգսյան, pronounced [vɑzˈɡɛn zɑvɛˈni sɑɾkʰəsˈjɑn]; 5 March 1959 – 27 October 1999) was an Armenian military commander and politician. He was the first Defence Minister of Armenia from 1991 to 1992 and then from 1995 to 1999. He served as Armenia's prime minister from 11 June 1999 until his assassination on 27 October of that year. He rose to prominence during the mass movement for the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia in the late 1980s and led Armenian volunteer groups during the early clashes with Azerbaijani forces. Appointed defence minister by President Levon Ter-Petrosyan soon after Armenia's independence from the Soviet Union in late 1991, Sargsyan became the most prominent commander of Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. In different positions, he regulated the military operations in the war area until 1994, when a ceasefire was reached ending the war with Armenian forces controlling almost all of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts.
In the post-war years, Sargsyan tightened his grip on the Armed Forces of Armenia, establishing himself as a virtual strongman. After strongly supporting Ter-Petrosyan to retain power in 1996, he forced the president out of office in 1998 due to the latter's support for concessions in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement negotiations, and helped Prime Minister Robert Kocharyan to be elected president. After his relations with Kocharyan deteriorated, Sargsyan merged the influential war veterans group Yerkrapah into the Republican Party and joined forces with Armenia's ex-communist leader Karen Demirchyan. In the May 1999 elections, their reform-minded alliance secured a comfortable majority in the National Assembly. Sargsyan became prime minister, emerging as the de facto decision-maker in Armenia with effective control of the military and the legislature.
Sargsyan, along with Karen Demirchyan and six others, were killed in the Armenian parliament shooting on 27 October 1999. The perpetrators were sentenced to life in prison. However, the distrust toward the trial process gave birth to a number of conspiracy theories. Some experts and politicians argue that their assassination was masterminded by Kocharyan and National Security Minister Serzh Sargsyan. Others have suspected the possible involvement of foreign powers in the shooting.
Despite his mixed legacy, Sargsyan is now widely recognized as a national hero across the political spectrum and by the public. Given the honorific Sparapet, he made significant contributions to the establishment of Armenia as independent state and ensuring its security as the founder of the Armenian Army. He has also been criticized by human rights organizations for being undemocratic, especially for his role in elections. Sargsyan was awarded the highest titles of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh—National Hero of Armenia and Hero of Artsakh.
Vazgen Zaveni Sargsyan was born in Ararat village, Soviet Armenia, near the Turkish border, on 5 March 1959, to Greta and Zaven Sargsyan. His ancestors had moved to Ararat from Maku, northern Iran, following the Russo-Persian War of 1826–28. After finishing secondary school in his village, he attended the Yerevan Institute of Physical Culture from 1976 to 1979. He worked as a physical education teacher at the secondary school in Ararat from 1979 to 1983. Therefore, he was exempt from conscription in the Soviet army. From 1983 to 1986, he was the Young Communist League (Komsomol) leader at the Ararat Cement Factory.
An amateur writer, Sargsyan developed a literary and active social life. He wrote his first novel in 1980, and became a member of the Writers Union of Armenia in 1985. From 1986 to 1989, he headed the publicity department of the Garun («Գարուն», "Spring") literary monthly in Yerevan. In 1986, his first book, Hatsi pordzutyun («Հացի փորձություն», Bread temptation), was published, for which he was awarded by the Armenian Komsomol. A number of his works were published in journals. However, his literary career did not last long and ended in the late 1980s.
Early stages and independence of Armenia
The relative democratization of the Soviet regime under Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika policies since the mid-1980s gave rise to nationalism in the republics of the Soviet Union. In Armenia, the Karabakh movement gained widespread public support. Armenians demanded the Soviet authorities unify the mostly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) of Azerbaijan with Armenia. In February 1988, the NKAO regional legislature requested the transfer of the region from the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan SSR to Armenian SSR, but it was rejected by the Politburo. Tensions between Armenians and Azerbaijanis further escalated with the pogrom in Sumgait. With both groups arming themselves, clashes became frequent, especially in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh and the border areas of the two Soviet republics. In 1989 and 1990, Sargsyan took the command of Armenian volunteer groups fighting near Yeraskh, on the Armenian-Azerbaijani (Nakhchivan) border, not far from his hometown.
By January 1990, he became part of the leadership of the Pan-Armenian National Movement. Sargsyan was elected to the Armenian parliament (the Supreme Council) in the May 1990 election. He served as the head of the Supreme Council Commission on Defense and Internal Affairs until December 1991. With his initiative, the Special Regiment was established in September 1990. Composed of 26 platoons and a total of 2,300 men, it was the first formal Armenian military unit independent from Moscow. It became the main base of the Armenian army in the following years.
By 1991, most Armenians from Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis from Armenia were forced to move to their respective countries, as remaining in their homes became nearly impossible. Although Armenia had proclaimed its independence from the Soviet Union on 23 August 1990, it was not until on 21 September 1991, a month after the failed August Coup in Moscow, when the overwhelming majority of Armenians voted for independence in a nationwide referendum. Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the leader of the Karabakh Committee and the head of the Supreme Council since 1990, was elected president of Armenia in October.
Due to the fact that Sargsyan was popular among Armenian volunteer units and army officers, he was appointed the first defense minister of independent Armenia by President Ter-Petrosyan in December 1991. 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. With the rise of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, in March 1992, Sargsyan announced that Armenia needed a 30,000-strong army for maintaining security. On 9 May 1992, the Armenian forces recorded their first major military success in Nagorno-Karabakh with the capture of Shushi. Another significant victory for the Armenian forces was recorded weeks later with the capture of Lachin, which connects Armenia proper with Nagorno-Karabakh.
In summer 1992, the situation turned critical for the Armenian forces following the launch of Operation Goranboy, during which Azerbaijan took control of northern half of Nagorno-Karabakh. On 15 August 1992, Sargsyan called on Armenian men to gather and form a volunteer unit to fight against the advancing Azerbaijani forces in the northern parts of Nagorno-Karabakh. In a televised speech he stated: If 10–15 men from every district of Armenia come together, we can form a battalion of 500. This battalion must fight in the most dangerous areas, where the chance of survival is 50–50. Together we will go fight in the most difficult parts and we will win. Because, in reality, nothing has changed, the enemy is the same enemy, which was escaping and we are the same. It's just that we have lost the faith in our power. Now we need another attack and we must do it with the old guys to stimulate others in the army. If the day after tomorrow we will be able to establish a battalion of 500 volunteers, then we will fight and we will win."