Arayik Harutyunyan §

Arayik Harutyunyan became president of the Republic of Artsakh in 2020, on the eve of the war that would break the de facto state. Formerly prime minister and state minister, he represented the local administrative elite rather than the older Armenian national leadership. His presidency was defined almost entirely by crisis: the 44-day war, loss of Hadrut and Shusha, the Russian peacekeeper-dependent remnant, the Lachin blockade and the shrinking space for independent decision-making. He resigned in September 2023 shortly before the Azerbaijani military operation that forced capitulation and mass exodus. Harutyunyan\u2019s significance lies in the tragedy of timing. He formally headed Artsakh, but the decisive levers by then sat with Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia\u2019s post-2020 diplomacy. His tenure shows the collapse of de facto agency under blockade and military pressure.