Levon Ter-Petrosyan

Levon Ter-Petrosyan is an important leader and scholar from Armenia. He was born on January 9, 1945, in Aleppo, Syria. His family came from a long line of priests. They moved to Soviet Armenia in 1947 when he was a baby.

Before he entered politics, he spent much time studying history. He graduated from Yerevan State University in 1969. Later, he studied at Leningrad State University. He became a senior researcher at the Matenadaran institute. This is a special place for research. He wrote over 30 books and many scientific articles. He even wrote about the Assyrian language.

In the late 1980s, a new movement began in Armenia. This was called the Karabakh movement. People wanted to join Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. Levon became a leader of this movement in 1988. He helped start a group called the Karabakh Committee. This group wanted more democracy for the people. In 1989, he helped found the Pan-Armenian National Movement. He also became a member of the Supreme Soviet. This was a group that helped run the country. He worked hard to help Armenia become independent.

Armenia officially became an independent nation in September 1991. Levon was elected as the very first president. He won the 1991 election with 83% of the vote.

As president, he had many hard jobs to do. He led the country through the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. This war was fought against neighboring Azerbaijan. During this time, the Armenian military gained some territory. They captured areas like Shusha and Lachin. A ceasefire was finally signed in May 1994. This agreement ended the large-scale fighting for a time.

Being a leader involves making very difficult choices. In 1996, Levon was reelected as president. However, some people thought the election was not fair. This led to large protests in the streets. Later, Levon had disagreements with his own government. He disagreed with leaders like Vazgen Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan. They had different ideas about peace. Because of these disagreements, Levon resigned on February 3, 1998. He stayed away from politics for many years after that. He did not join the political scene again until 2007.

Levon made a big comeback in the 2008 election. He ran against the Prime Minister, Serzh Sargsyan. Levon received 21.5% of the total vote. He believed the election results were rigged. This caused thousands of people to protest in the streets. Sadly, ten people died during these protests on March 1, 2008. After this, Levon started the Armenian National Congress, or ANC. This group included many different political parties. The ANC worked to challenge the government through rallies. They even won some seats in the 2012 elections.