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Biography

Born on June 1, 1975 in Idjevan, he graduated from Idjevan Secondary School N1.

In 1991-1995, he studied at the Yerevan State University. In the fifth year of graduation, he was dismissed from the YSU for political reasons.

Since 1992, he had been actively engaged in journalism. He was on the staff of Dprutyun, Hayastan, Lragir, Lragir-Or and Molorak newspapers. In 1998, he founded Oragir daily, which was closed down by a court decision in 1999 for political reasons.

In 1999, he was appointed editor-in-chief of Haykakan Zhamanak daily and held the post until 2012.

In August, 1999, he was sentenced to one year in prison for political motives. Later, at the request of international and Armenian journalists, the Court of Appeals delayed the imprisonment for a year. As a result, the imprisonment was never enforced.

In 2007, he was founding member of Alternative public-political association. He headed the proportional list of Impeachment alliance in the parliamentary elections of 2007.

During the 2008 presidential election, he was member of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s campaign headquarters.

For a year following March 1, 2008, he was wanted by the Police and spent four months in hiding. On July 1, 2009, he came out of hiding and surrendered himself to the Office of General Prosecutor, where he was arrested and sentenced to seven years in January 2010 on charges of organizing mass disorders on March 1, 2008.

He has been widely recognized as a prisoner of conscience in Armenia and by the international community. After spending one year and 11 months in prison, he was released on May 27, 2011 by virtue of

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