29/12/2014 11:30
Vahan Hovhannisyan dies
Armenian Ambassador to Germany, member of the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun Party’s Supreme Body Vahan Hovhannisyan died on December 28 in Germany after a long battle with illness. He was 58.
Vahan Hovhannisyan was born in 1956 in Yerevan. In 1978 he graduated from Moscow State Pedagogical University with a degree in history and archeology and worked as a scholar in Yerevan.
Vahan Hovhannisyan participated in the Artsakh liberation struggle in 1990-1992. He was a member of the ARFD Armenian Committee and the party’s Bureau in 1992-1995. He was imprisoned in 1995-1998 for political reasons (on charges that were not proved later). In 1998-1999 he was advisor to the Armenian president, and the chairman of a commission on local government affairs. In 1999-2003 he was a parliamentary deputy and was elected as chairman of the standing committee on defense, national security and internal affairs.
V. Hovhannisyan was elected a deputy of the National Assembly in 2003, 2007 and 2012 from the ARFD party list. He was elected a vice speaker of the NA in 2003 and 2007 and resigned in 2008. He ran as ARFD’s candidate in the 2008 presidential election in Armenia.