Modernized Soviet Armenia over 14 years, sacked for siding with Karabakh, returned and assassinated in parliament
On 23 April 1975, Demirchyan became the first Soviet Armenian leader to officially condemn the organizers of the Armenian Genocide, mourning the victims in the republic's name.
Rising from the Yerevan Electrotechnical Factory as foreman, party secretary, chief engineer, and director, Demirchyan became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia in 1974 and led Soviet Armenia for fourteen years. His tenure saw the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, Yerevan Metro, and other modern infrastructure built. In 1975 he became the first Soviet Armenian leader to officially condemn the Armenian Genocide, and he secured Armenian as the state language in the 1978 Constitution. In 1988, after siding with protests demanding Nagorno-Karabakh's transfer to Armenia, Moscow removed him on health grounds. After the Soviet collapse he returned to politics, winning 40% in the 1998 presidential runoff and being elected Speaker in 1999, only to be assassinated in the parliament shooting alongside Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan that October.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1954–1966Yerevan Electrotechnical Factory: engineer, party secretary, chief engineer, director
- 1959–1961Higher Party School, CPSU Central Committee, Moscow
- 1966–1972Secretary → First Secretary, Yerevan City Party Committee
- 1972–1974Secretary, CC of the Communist Party of Armenia
- 1974–1988First Secretary, CC of the Communist Party of Armenia; Chairman, Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR (1976–1988)
- 1976–1989Member, CPSU Central Committee
- 1991–1999General Director, ArmElektroMashina (Hayelectromekena) electrical equipment plant
- 1998–1999Founder and Chairman, People's Party of Armenia
- 1999President of the National Assembly, Republic of Armenia (June–October)
Related historical events
Fourteen years leading Soviet Armenia and the removal of 1988
Demirchyan was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia in November 1974, becoming the republic's de facto leader, and two years later he also became chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Armenia. He held office for fourteen years until his removal in May 1988, and during that time Armenia was, by Soviet standards, a prosperous republic.
Among the major facilities brought into service during his tenure were the Metsamor nuclear power plant, the Yerevan Metro and the Sports and Concert Complex. Armenian-language sources add Zvartnots Airport in Yerevan, Shirak Airport in Gyumri and airports in the border regions, the Arpa-Sevan water tunnel, factories such as Hrazdanmash, Pozistor, Impulse and Mars, and the Masis-Nurnus and Akstafa-Ijevan-Hrazdan-Sevan-Martuni railway lines. In 1980 he blocked construction of the Meghri-Nyuvadi road, the Armenian section of the so-called "Friendship" highway linking Baku and Nakhchivan, and built the Meghri-Kajaran highway instead; he also had the Goris-Stepanakert television relay station built.
Two decisions of the leadership in this period stand out. On 23 April 1975 Demirchyan, in the name of Armenia's top leadership, condemned the organisers of the Armenian Genocide for the first time, and in 1978 he secured the reaffirmation in the new constitution of the clause making Armenian the state language. Accounts that record the genocide condemnation as the "first" reflect differences of wording between the language versions of the sources and should be read in the limited sense of the first official condemnation at the highest level.
The circumstances of his removal show the character of the nationalities question in the late Soviet Union. When the Karabakh movement began in Armenia in 1988, the Central Committee of the CPSU decided to remove Demirchyan from office on grounds of "deteriorating health", and he formally retired. The English-language account says that he failed to suppress the mass demonstrations demanding the transfer of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and instead sided with the protesters, and that as a result he lost the support of the Moscow leadership and was dismissed in May 1988 "for health reasons". There was, in other words, a gap between the official pretext and the real cause of the conflict, and this is what made his removal not a routine personnel change but a political clash between the republic's leadership and the Union centre.