Ter-Petrossian, Levon Akopovich (1945– )

Armenian politician and philologist, president 1990–98. He pursued a career as an academic and writer before forming, in November 1989, the Armenian Pan-Nationalist Movement (APM) to campaign for independence. As president from May 1990, he led the country to independence in September 1991 and backed the ethnic Armenians in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in their fight to break away from neighbouring Azerbaijan. Although he promoted market-centred economic reforms and was re-elected president in 1991 and 1996, he enjoyed decreasing support for himself and the APM, and stepped down in February 1998 amidst divisions over his policy toward Nagorno-Karabakh. He was replaced by Robert Kocharian.

Born in Aleppo, Syria, into a renowned Armenian literary family, he was educated at the State University of Yerevan in Armenia, gained a doctorate in Armenian–Assyrian studies from the St Petersburg Oriental Institute in Russia, and worked as a researcher before becoming a full-time political activist in the late 1980s. A long-time dissident, he was imprisoned in 1988–89 after founding the Armenian Karabakh Committee.