Nikol Pashinyan

Some Lesser Known Facts About Nikol Pashinyan

• Does Nikol Pashinyan smoke?: Not Known

• Does Nikol Pashinyan drink alcohol?: Not Known

• Nikol Pashinyan is an Armenian politician who became the Prime Minister of Armenia on May 8, 2018. 

• He was born in Ijevan, a regional town near the north-eastern border with Azerbaijan. 

• In the early 1990s, he moved to the capital Yerevan to study journalism. 

• He was a brilliant student and was tagged a straight-A student.

• Pashinyan couldn’t finish his journalism degree, as he was expelled for missing classes.

• According to his classmates, he angered his superiors by writing an article in a newspaper about corruption.

• In the late 1990s, Nikol launched his own newspaper, Armenian Time, and became its Editor. 

• As the Armenian politics engulfed into authoritarianism, Nikol’s newspaper became the country’s most fearless.

• Pashinyan’s first major political stint was in 2008 when he aligned with Armenia’s first President, Levon Ter-Petrosyan. 

• Levon Ter-Petrosyan lost his bid in the February 2008 presidential elections to Republican Party chairman Serzh Sargsyan in a disputed vote, and it gave Nikol Pashinyan his first reason to protest.

• The protest by Nikol Pashinyan triggered violence on March 1, 2008, culminating in ten deaths. 

• After the violent protest, Pashinyan was forced into hiding for several months. 

• On July 1, 2009, he came out of hiding and surrendered himself to Armenian police. 

• On April 22, 2018, in a statement, Sargsyan warned the protest leader that “he had not learned the lessons of March 1.” According to sources, it was this statement, which brought the people come out to a huge demonstration who gathered on Yerevan’s Republic Square.

• Following the protest, Pashinyan, along with 200 other, was arrested. However, under intense pressure, Sargsyan released them and resigned.

• In his dramatic final statement, Sargsyan wrote, “Nikol Pashinyan was right. I was wrong.”

• Following Sargsyan’s resignation, Nikol Pashinyan emerged as the undisputed leader of the masses.