Vagharshak Harutiunyan
Vagharshak Harutiunyan was the Defence Minister of Armenia from 11 June 1999 until 20 May 2000.Biography
Harutiunyan was born in Akhalkalaki, Georgian SSR, a region with a large Armenian population. He graduated from the Caspian Higher Naval School in 1978. From 1978 to 1989, he fought in the Soviet–Afghan War. Harutiunyan than graduatated from the Naval Academy of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union in 1991.
He switched allegiance to Armenia prior to the fall of the Soviet Union. Harutiunyan was named Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Defence Committee of Armenia in 1991, in the middle of the Nagorno-Karabakh War. In 1992, he became the Deputy Chief of Staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces of the CIS. Harutiunyan was chosen as the representative of the Armenian Armed Forces at the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1994.
In 1999, Harutiunyan returned to Armenia replace Vazgen Sargsyan as Defence Minister of Armenia on 11 June 1999 after Sargsyan was elected Prime Minister. Harutiunyan joined Sargsyan and Head of the Government Staff Shahen Karamanukyan in the meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States heads of government in Yalta, Ukraine on 7 October 1999. He left the Defense Minister post on 20 May 2000.
On 23 July 2002, Harutiunyan joined the opposition Hanrapetutyun Party, led by Aram Sargsyan, the brother of Vazgen Sarggsyan.
