21 Facts About Paruyr Hayrikyan

Paruyr Arshaviri Hayrikyan was born on July 5,1949 and is an Armenian politician and former Soviet dissident.

Paruyr Hayrikyan was an early member and leader of the National United Party, which sought Armenia's independence from the Soviet Union.

Paruyr Hayrikyan spent a total of about 18 years in Soviet correctional facilities for his dissident activities and was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in 1988, although he was allowed to return two years later.

Since Armenia gained its independence in 1991, Hayrikyan has been active in Armenian politics as the leader of the Union for National Self-Determination, the successor party to the NUP, and took part in presidential elections in 1991 and 2013, surviving an assassination attempt during the latter.

Paruyr Hayrikyan is a writer and accomplished composer, having authored several popular patriotic Armenian songs.

Paruyr Hayrikyan was born in Nubarashen, a suburb of Yerevan, in 1949.

Paruyr Hayrikyan's father Arshavir was born in Constantinople and immigrated to Soviet Armenia in 1946, while his mother Zaruhi was born in Krasnodar to a family originally from Van.

In 1966 Paruyr Hayrikyan was admitted to Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, where he attended night classes while working as an electrician in a factory in Nubarashen.

Paruyr Hayrikyan managed to establish several branches of the NUP and to publish 5,000 copies of the party newspaper Erkounk.

On March 29,1969, Paruyr Hayrikyan was arrested by the KGB and sentenced to 4 years in prison the next year, which he served in a special camp for political prisoners in Mordovia.

Paruyr Hayrikyan returned to Armenia from prison in 1973, but was arrested again in February 1974 and sentenced to seven years imprisonment and three years exile.

In 1984, Paruyr Hayrikyan was sent into internal exile in Ust-Kut in the Irkutsk Oblast, where he remained until early 1987.

Paruyr Hayrikyan spent a total of about 18 years in Soviet prisons, including more than 300 days in solitary confinement.

In fall 1987, Paruyr Hayrikyan returned to Yerevan and founded the Union for National Self-Determination as a successor party to the NUP.

In 1988, Paruyr Hayrikyan was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and exiled to Ethiopia after his accusations that the Soviet leadership instigated the Sumgait pogroms of Armenian population in Azerbaijan.

Since then Paruyr Hayrikyan has taken an active part in Armenian political life.

Paruyr Hayrikyan's supporters claimed that there were violations during the campaign, including an act of violence committed against him and his supporters in the village of Paravakar.

Since 1992, as an appointed Commandant of Goris, Paruyr Hayrikyan took measures to ensure the efficient defense and organizing settlements of refugees in the Syunik and Artsakh.

Paruyr Hayrikyan wrote the autobiographical novel On a Quest of the Light in 2001.

Paruyr Hayrikyan speaks Armenian, Russian, English and Latvian, and has a good command of French, Ukrainian and Lithuanian.

Paruyr Hayrikyan was married to Yelena Sirotenko, they have three children and three grandchildren.