Arkadi Ghukasyan

Arkadi Ghukassjan (Armenian Արկադի Ղուկասյան, in English transcription Arkady Ghoukasyan, Russian Аркадий Аршавирович Гукасян, in scientific transliteration: Arkadi Łukasyan; born June 22, 1957 in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh, then Azerbaijan SSR ) from 1997 to 2007 President of the internationally unrecognized Republic Nagorno-Karabakh.

Name and pronunciation

Ghukas is the Armenian form of Luke. Unlike the Russian transliteration, it suggests the name is not pronounced " Gukassjan ". The "gh " is correctly pronounced as High German "r".

Journalistic and political career

According to official figures Ghukassjan graduated in 1974 from the school and five years later graduated from the Faculty Russi tables. In 1980 he began as a correspondent for the newspaper Sowetakan Karabakh ( Karabakh to Soviet German ), and was there a year later deputy editor. Since 1988 he was involved in the Armenian Karabakh movement. Therefore, and because of his articles in which he attacked the leadership of the Azerbaijan SSR sharp, he was arrested in 1990 and spent a month in prison in Rostov-on- Don and was also several times thereafter under house arrest. During the war over Nagorno Karabakh, he worked as a correspondent front.

1992 Ghukassjan was elected to the first parliament of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the National Assembly. He was political adviser to the National Defence Council and led the delegation to the negotiations with the OSCE, with responsibility for the regulation of the conflict. In 1993, he became the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh and in the same year a member of the National Defence Council.

After the President Robert Kocharian in 1997 Prime Minister in Armenia was, Arkadi Ghukassjan won the early elections. Thus he became the commander in chief of the armed forces and chairman of the National Defense Council.

There have been persistent speculation that Ghukassjan could use the adoption of a constitution to aim at a third term (such as Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus ). On October 11, 2006 a Declaration Ghukassjan not to have the intention to reapply. His tenure ended on 19 July 2007.

Private

Arkadi Ghukassjan is married and has two children.