The last party first secretary who tilted Nagorno-Karabakh toward Armenia
From the rostrum of the USSR Supreme Soviet, July 1988: "The optimal solution in this situation would be to detach Karabakh from Azerbaijan. I see no alternative."
An Armenian party functionary born in Stepanakert in 1931, Poghosyan was appointed First Secretary of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast Party Committee on 24 February 1988, inheriting an explosive situation barely four days after the regional soviet voted to unify with Soviet Armenia. Within weeks he chaired a party plenum that formally petitioned Moscow to transfer Karabakh to Armenia, and in July he told the USSR Supreme Soviet from the rostrum that he saw no alternative to separating Karabakh from Azerbaijan. Moscow removed him in January 1989 and replaced the oblast leadership with Arkady Volsky's Special Administration Committee; Poghosyan retired to Moscow and died there in 2000.
Career Timeline
- ~1987–1988.02Deputy Chairman, NKAO Executive Committee; Head of Agroprom
- 1988.02–1989.01First Secretary, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast Party Committee
- 1989People's Deputy of the USSR (Stepanakert electoral district)
- 1989–2000Retired in Moscow