FROM THE BIOGRAPHY OF ACTING DEFENSE MINISTER OF ARMENIA MIKHAIL ARUTYUNYAN
Translated by Pavel Pushkin

Source: Krasnaya Zvezda, April 07, 2007, p. 3
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
April 11, 2007 Wednesday

Colonel General Mikhail Arutyunyan, chief of the main staff of the
armed forces and Senior Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia, became
acting Defense Minister of the republic. Former Defense Minister
Serzh Sarkisyan was appointed as Prime Minister of Armenia.

Arutyunyan was born on February 10 of 1946 in Sagiyan village of the
Shemakha District of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic. In
1967, Arutyunyan graduated from the Baku higher military combined-arms
command school. In 1976, he graduated from the intelligence department
of the Military Academy named after Frunze.

In 1988, he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff
of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

During his service in the Soviet Armed Forces, he served on the posts
of platoon commander, company commander, chief of staff of a mechanized
infantry division, head of a department of the staff of an army corps,
deputy chief of staff of an army, senior lecturer of the intelligence
department of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed
Forces of the USSR.

In 1992, Arutyunyan was appointed as senior deputy chief of the main
staff of the armed forces of Armenia and director of the operational
department. Between 1992 and 1994, he was senior deputy chief of the
main staff of the armed forces of Armenia.

In 1994, he was appointed chief of the main staff of the armed forces
and Senior Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia.