Aysor, Armenia
March 5 2010
Sparapet Vazgen Sarkisian’s birthday: he would have turned 51
On March 5 Vazgen Sarkisian, late Armenia’s Defense Minister and Prime
Minister, would have turned 51 years old, had he not been gunned down
11 years ago on October 27, 1999.
Vazgen Sarkisian, who devoted much of his life to the Armenian fight
with Azerbaijan for liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh, was crowned by
Armenian nation as Sparapet ` the title that over ages was awarded to
very few persons.
Vazgen Sarkisian was very influential in creating the Armenian army
after the Soviet Union’s collapse; he greatly contributed to
liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh, helped found the Karabakh Committee,
commanded ground troops (1990`92), and held senior posts in the
defense ministry and government of Armenia.
Vazgen Sarkisian was born in 1959 in the village of Ararat. He was a
qualified sports trainer and taught physical education until 1983,
when he started his political career.
In 1985 he became a member of Armenian Writers’ Union, and worked as a
chief of the department of journalism of Garun magazine (The Spring).
In 1990-92s, Sparapet was the commander of the Erkrapa group
volunteers, gaining a reputation as a military leader. It was this
reputation that helped him to rise to the office of Defense Minister
of Armenia in 1991 and country’s Prime Minister in 1999.
Nearly five months later he was shot dead during an armed attack on
Armenian Parliament on October 27, 1999.
Sparapet Vazgen Sarkisian was posthumously awarded as Armenia’s National Hero.
By this day, marking Vazgen Sarkisian’s birthday and in dedication to
his memory in people’s hearts, `The Sparapet’ (Warlord) book by
Colonel Martin Bagdasarian is to be published.