Armen Sarkissian
Armen Vardani Sarkissian (Armenian: Արմեն Վարդանի Սարգսյան;[a]) (born 23 June 1953) is an Armenian[1][2][3][4][5][6] politician, physicist, investor, businessman, and computer scientist who served as the 4th president of Armenia from 2018 to 2022.[7] He also served as Prime Minister of Armenia from 1996 to 1997. He was the first president of post-Soviet Armenia born in former Armenian SSR.
Armen Sarkissian
Sarkissian has been one of the longest serving ambassadors of any country to the United Kingdom, a role to which he was first appointed in 1992-1996, before returning in 1998 and 2013. He was also Armenia’s maiden ambassador to the Vatican, the European Union, NATO, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, and served as “Senior Ambassador” to Europe.
Sarkissian served as the first chairman of the Global Council on Energy Security at the World Economic Forum, with which he has had a long association. He has authored numerous scientific articles and is a speaker and commentator on international affairs. His op-eds and essays have appeared in publications such as the Times, the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, Time magazine, Newsweek, Hollywood Reporter and the Wall Street Journal.
In October 2022, Sarkissian announced that he was working on a new book titled The Small States Club: How Small Smart States can Save the World, to be published by Hurst Publishers. [2] [3]. In January 2023, The Small States Club was listed alongside forthcoming books by Martin Wolf and Peter Frankopan as one of the “15 books to look forward to in 2023” by the Diplomatic Courier. [4]
Education and early career[edit]
Sarkissian graduated from the Yerevan State University Department of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics. He is an Honorary Doctor of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia and member of the National Competitiveness Council of Armenia. From 1976 to 1984, he was assistant and later associate professor of Physics at Yerevan State University. In 1984, he became a visiting research fellow and visiting professor at the University of Cambridge.[8][9] where he worked alongside Stephen Hawking and Lord Martin Rees.
In 1988, he established and subsequently became the Head of the Department of Computer Modeling of Complex Systems at Yerevan State University.
Sarkissian was one of the co-creators of the 1991 Tetris spinoff game Wordtris.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Later packaged with Tetris as Tetris Gold, it was for a period the most popular videogame in the world by sales. In an article in the Hollywood Reporter in March 2023, Sarkissian detailed the tense and dramatic events surrounding the creation of Wordtris and its sale to Spectrum Holobyte. In April, he appeared on a podcast alongside Henk Rogers, the co-founder of Tetris, and Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of the game whom he had last seen in the Soviet Union.
President of Armenia[edit]
Election[edit]
President Serzh Sargsyan offered the Presidency to Sarkissian on an official television broadcast on 19 January 2018 with a public request to shoulder responsibility in enhancing Armenia’s foreign relations, diaspora affairs, foreign investment, science, education and culture. Sarkissian’s candidacy was supported by the ruling Republican Party. He also enjoyed additional support from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation bloc, as well as from the Tsarukian Parliamentary bloc.
Sarkissian was elected president by a majority of the National Assembly on 2 March 2018, winning 90 votes in a 105-member House.
Inauguration[edit]
Sarkissian was inaugurated on 9 April 2018. The ceremony took place at the Karen Demirchyan Complex in Yerevan.[17] Following the ceremony, the newly elected 4th President of Armenia visited the Yerablur military pantheon.
Personal life[edit]
He married Nouneh Sarkissian (born 1954), a researcher at the Matenadaran, in 1978. Together, they have two adult children. Besides Armenian and Russian, two languages that Sarkissian grew up speaking, he is also fluent in English as a result of his time spent in the United Kingdom. He is a personal friend of King Charles III, who made a private visit to Armenia in 2013 as Sarkissian’s guest. [16] He also knew the Soviet intelligence officer Gevork Vartanian.[40] and sought his help to build Armenia’s intelligence capabilities.
In January 2021, Sarkissian tested positive for the COVID-19[41][42][43][44][45] while on a visit to London. He was shifted to a hospital and returned to Armenia following his recovery.
Domestic
Foreign
Media related to Armen Sarkissian at Wikimedia Commons