1. An Armenian from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic who served as chief of staff for the Soviet 40th Army in Afghanistan and deputy chief of the Soviet Ground Forces' main staff before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ter-Grigoryants took up the Armenian government's invitation to take command of the Armenian Ground Forces in 1992.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants briefly served as named Acting Defence minister of Armenia in 1993.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants returned to the Russian Federation since his retirement in 1995 and is a member of the board of the Union of Armenians of Russia.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants was born and educated in the city of Vladikavkaz in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union, where his Armenian family had come in the 1920s after fleeing from the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants's parents were from Erzurum Province and Kars.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants initially entered the Soviet Army as a conscript in 1955, but rejoined in 1957 to become an officer and graduated from the Ulyanovsk Tank School in 1960.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants subsequently attended the Vystrel higher officers' course and graduated from the Malinovsky Military Academy of the Armored Troops in Moscow in 1973.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants attended the Voroshilov General Staff Academy as a major-general and graduated in 1980.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants was made deputy chief of the Main Staff of the Ground Forces of the USSR upon returning from Afghanistan in late 1983 and remained deputy chief as a lieutenant-general until 1991.
Armenia's government invited Norat Ter-Grigoryants to assume command of the Armenian Army in 1992.
In June 1993, Norat Ter-Grigoryants replaced Defense Minister Vazgen Manukyan in acting capacity following his leave until the appointment of Serzh Sargsyan a month later.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants retired in 1995, shortly after the end of the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in 1994.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants has resided in the Russian Federation since 1995, but maintains his ties to Armenia and Russia's Armenian community.
Norat Ter-Grigoryants is a president emeritus of the Council of Veterans of Russian Land Forces and a board member of the Union of Armenians of Russia.