Samvel Babayan

Samvel Andraniki Babayan (Սամվել Անդրանիկի Բաբայան; born 5 March 1965) is an Armenian military commander and politician from Nagorno-Karabakh.

He was one of the founders and main commanders of the Artsakh Defence Army during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and became a hero among Armenians for the military victories achieved under his command.

Babayan was born on 5 March 1965 in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, Azerbaijan SSR.

In 1982, he finished Armenian secondary school #7 named after Yeghishe Charents in Stepanakert.

From 1983 to 1985, he served in the Soviet military contingent in East Germany.

According to Thomas de Waal, Babayan made his living as a garage mechanic and car-washer and also worked at a café before the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

In 1988, Samvel Babayan enlisted in a paramilitary unit and rose to command his own unit.

From 1989 to 1991 he was the commander of the Stepanakert Second Volunteers Company and a member of the Stepanakert underground central headquarters.

In 1991 he was arrested by Azerbaijani authorities for his paramilitary activities but was released the same year in exchange for an Azerbaijani official captured by Armenian forces.

Babayan rose to prominence during the military phase of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in 1991–1994.

Babayan coordinated Armenian operations in Karabakh, participated in the planning of the capture of Shusha and was the commander of the Lachin front.

As unified military command began to be established in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1992–1993, Babayan became the Commander of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army in 1993, after his predecessor Serzh Sargsyan left to become Armenia's Defense Minister.

Under his command, the Karabakhi military won a number of strategic battles against the Azerbaijani military and regained control over most of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as partially controlling 7 districts of Azerbaijan.

Following the war, he served as the Defense Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic from 1994 to 2000.

Babayan was one of the signatories of the 1994 ceasefire which ended the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Samvel Babayan established himself as the most powerful man in Nagorno-Karabakh in the aftermath of the war.

According to Thomas de Waal, Babayan acquired significant wealth by selling materials taken from the Azerbaijani districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh and by establishing a monopoly over cigarette and fuel imports to Nagorno-Karabakh through a company registered in his wife's name.

Babayan used his position to acquire land, businesses and tax privileges.

After Nagorno-Karabakh's president Robert Kocharyan left his position to become prime minister of Armenia, Babayan became even more influential in Karabakh's civilian politics.

In June 1998, he forced Nagorno-Karabakh's prime minister Leonard Petrosyan to resign.

At a joint session of the security councils of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in January 1998, at the urging of Vazgen Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan, and Serzh Sargsyan, Babayan spoke strongly against President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan's plan to accept the OSCE Minsk Group's proposals to return some of the territory captured from Azerbaijan during the war and deploy international peacekeepers there; Ter-Petrosyan was forced to resign a month later.

Babayan then began to intervene in Armenian politics, funding the "Law and Unity" bloc in the 1999 Armenian parliamentary election, where the bloc came in third.

After this, Armenia's prime minister Vazgen Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan (now president of Armenia) decided to restrain Babayan's growing influence.

Robert Kocharyan was unable to deal with the Babayan issue directly due to the political chaos in Armenia following the Armenian parliament shooting in October 1999, leaving it to the government of Nagorno-Karabakh under president Arkadi Ghukasyan and the new Karabakh Army leadership.

In December 1999, Babayan was forced to relinquish his position as the commander of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army.

During this period, Babayan "became not only the military leader but the most powerful man in Karabakh overall, controlling its government and economy" until his arrest and imprisonment in 2000 on charges of attempting to assassinate Arkadi Ghukasyan, President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

On 22 March 2000, Babayan was arrested on charges of launching an assassination attempt on Arkadi Ghukasyan, which left the president seriously wounded but alive.

After Babayan's arrest, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities confiscated Babayan's real estate, nationalized or closed down his enterprises, and detained or removed from office hundreds of officials loyal to him.

Babayan was tried for organizing the attempt on Ghukasyan's life along with 15 of his associates.

The trial began on 18 September 2000 and ended on 26 February 2001, when Babayan was sentenced to 14 years of prison, stripped of several decorations and ranks, and disenfranchised.

Two of his associates were also sentenced to 14 years and the other defendants were given lesser sentences.

During the investigation and while serving his sentence, Babayan's health greatly deteriorated.

He was said to suffer from hepatitis and other ailments which could not be treated in prison.

Babayan was released from prison early in 2004.

On 18 September 2004, Samvel Babayan was released from maximum-security prison in Shusha due to health concerns, with the terms of release including a probationary period and continued disenfranchisement.

In November 2005, Samvel Babayan founded the Dashink ("Alliance") political party with his supporters.

The party did not achieve any major success.

Babayan returned to Armenia in May 2016 after a de facto exile in Moscow, shortly after major clashes on the Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact.

He stated, "Whether I was in Karabakh, Armenia or abroad, the security concerns of my country, my people have always been on my mind. I have the full grasp of the military situation, the problems at the frontlines and possess all necessary information."

He served as Secretary of the Security Council of Artsakh from May 2020 until November 2020, when he resigned after the defeat of the Armenian side in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.