Kocharian, Robert (1954- )

Armenian politician, founder of the Karabakh movement, prime minister of Armenia from 1997. He proclaimed the Nagorno-Karabakh region a republic within Azerbaijan on 2 September 1991. In the referendum of 10 December 1991 he was elected to the Supreme Council of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in Azerbaijan. He became chair of the State Committee for Defence and the leader of the republic from 1992 to 1994. He served as the first president of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in Azerbaijan, when he was elected by the Supreme Council in 1994. He became the Prime Minister of Armenia in March 1997.

Born at Stepanakert, he was educated at the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute and trained as an engineer, working at the Karabakh Silk Production Factory 1981-87 and serving as the secretary of the factory's Communist Party 1987-89. In 1989 he left the Communist Party and became a Deputy of the Armenian Supreme Council 1989-94. In May 1998 he lifted the ban on the centre-left Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) and brought two of its members into his cabinet.