Armenian PM Margarian Dies at 55

Sunday March 25, 2007 12:01 PM

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – Prime Minister Andranik Margarian died Sunday
of heart failure, government spokeswoman Meri Arutunian said. He was
55.

Margarian had been prime minister since May 2000. He was appointed in
a politically tense period that followed an October 1999 armed attack
on parliament that killed eight politicians including Prime Minister
Vazgen Sarkisian.

The assassinated premier was first replaced by his brother, Aram, but
President Robert Kocharian fired him and appointed Margarian amid
rising discontent over Armenia’s economic troubles.

Under the Armenian political system, the prime minister has mostly
executive powers and is a much less powerful figure than the
president.

Margarian, educated as a computer specialist, became active in
opposition to the Soviet Union in the 1970s and was imprisoned for two
years in that decade for espousing Armenian independence, according to
his official biography.

Margarian is survived by a wife, two daughters and a son.