Vahagn Khachaturyan was sworn in on Sunday, March 13, as the president of Armenia during a special session of the National Assembly in Yerevan. Mr. Khachaturyan was elected by the National Assembly on March 3 as the fifth president of the country since it regained independence in 1991. According to the Armenian constitution, his term of office is seven years.
The 62-year-old politician, who previously served as the minister of High Technology, was nominated by the ruling My Step Alliance. He succeeds Armen Sargsyan, who resigned as president in January.
Mr. Khachaturyan assumes office as the country is still recovering from the 44-day war in 2020 launched by Azerbaijan and Turkey against the Republic of Artsakh, still besieged by enemy forces. The Azerbaijani army last week destroyed the pipeline that supplied natural gas to Artsakh from Armenia, thus exposing the population to inhuman conditions by depriving them of heating in subzero temperatures.