ARF Leader Vahan Hovannesian Passes Away

ARF Leader Vahan Hovannesian Passes Away –

YEREVAN—Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) leader Vahan Hovannesian passed away today (Dec. 28), after a long battle with illness. He was 58.

Hovannesian was a long-time member of the ARF Bureau and Armenia’s National Assembly. Most recently, he was appointed Armenia’s Ambassador to Germany, a position he held until his passing.

A historian and archaeologist by training, Hovannesian was pulled into the whirlwind of Armenian politics in the late 1980s, as the Soviet Union began to crumble. He joined the ARF in 1989.

Hovannesian participated in the war with Azerbaijan, was imprisoned as a political prisoner for three years, and served as a member of Armenia’s National Assembly for 14 years. He was the ARF’s candidate for the 2008 Presidential Election in Armenia