Andranik Kocharyan (born on May 3, 1961, in Yerevan, the Armenian SSR, USSR) – an Armenian partisan, politician, member of the National Assembly of Armenia of different convocations, occupied high public posts in different periods of time in the Republic of Armenia. An engineer by specialty.

In 1995-1999, Kocharyan was a member of the Republic Faction of the National Assembly. In 2018 – 2021, he was a member of the My Step Alliance established on the basis of the Civil Contract Party. Since 2021, Kocharyan has been a member of the Civil Contract Party.

Currently, Andranik Kocharyan is a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia of the 8th convocation and chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Defense and Security.

In 1983, Kocharyan graduated from the Department of Automated Management Systems of the Faculty of Cybernetics of the Yerevan State Polytechnic Institute. Engineer.

In 2000, he graduated from the Law Faculty of Yerevan State University. Lawyer.

In 1983 -1990, he served at the Yerevan Scientific Research Institute of Mathematical Machines as an engineer.

In 2000 – 2005, Kocharyan was an Independent Expert on National Security and Defense at the Society Against Terrorism NGO.

In 2008 – 2009, a member and an expert of the fact-finding group studying the events that took place in Yerevan on March 1, 2008.

Since 2012, Kocharyan has been chairing the Armenian Center of Democracy, Security, and Development NGO.

Senior Public Positions of Armenia

Following Armenia's independence, Andranik Kocharyan occupied a series of senior positions in the country. In 1990 – 1991, he was First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. In 1991-1995 - First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia.

On December 16, 1991, First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Andranik Kocharyan was appointed State of Emergency Commandant in Meghri region for a period of three months by the Presidential Decree.

In 1999 -2000, he was Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia on issues of defense, national security, internal and human resources policy affairs.

Activity in the Disaster Area

In 1994 -1996, Andranik Kocharyan was appointed Extraordinary Plenipotentiary Representative of the Armenian Government in the Spital disaster area. He was widely criticized in public and faced allegations regarding his activities during that period.

Member of the National Assembly of Armenia

In 1995-1999, Andranik Kocharyan was a Member of the National Assembly representing the Republic Faction.

On December 9, 2018, he was elected to the National Assembly of the 6th convocation from the national electoral list of My Step Alliance.

On January 18, 2019, he was elected Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Defense and Security.

On June 20, 2021, Kocharyan was elected a Member of the National Assembly of the 7th convocation from the national electoral list of the Civil Contract Party.

On August 13, 2021, he was re-elected to the post of the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Defense and Security.

Chairman of the Investigative Committee on the April War

On May 31, 2019, an investigative committee was set up at the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia to investigate the circumstances of the four-day Armenian-Azerbaijani war of 2016. The committee comprised 11 parliamentarians (chairman: Andranik Kocharyan, members: Vardan Vardanyan, Gevorg Gorgisyan, Aram Khachatryan, Armen Khachatryan, Tigran Karapetyan, Sasun Mikaelyan, Kristine Poghosyan, Soghomon Soghomonyan, Rubik Stepanyan, and Sipan Pashinyan).

According to media reports, Andranik Kocharyan had promised to make scandalous statements during the long years of the investigative committee’s work.

However, the committee’s findings were never published, with secrecy cited as the reason. As chairman of the committee, Andranik Kocharyan stated that, given the Armenian Army’s tremendous losses in the 2021 Armenian-Azerbaijani war, it was not reasonable to publish the committee’s resolution.

According to committee member and Prosperous Armenia Party MP Gevorg Gorgisyan, the investigative committee’s resolution was not published because, after the 2021 war, Nikol Pashinyan’s plan to punish Serzh Sargsyan failed.