Pan-Armenian National Movement (HHSh)
The Pan-Armenian National Movement, HHSh, grew out of the Karabakh Movement and the Karabakh Committee in the final years of the Soviet Union. It carried the street mobilisation of 1988–90 into electoral politics and became the ruling force of independent Armenia under Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
From Karabakh Committee to ruling party
The Pan-Armenian National Movement, HHSh, grew out of the Karabakh Movement and the Karabakh Committee in the final years of the Soviet Union. It carried the street mobilisation of 1988–90 into electoral politics and became the ruling force of independent Armenia under Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
HHSh inherited a contradiction. It came to power through national mobilisation around Nagorno-Karabakh, but by the mid-1990s Ter-Petrosyan argued that Armenia had to accept a phased settlement and return surrounding Azerbaijani districts to avoid long-term isolation. His 1997 "War or Peace?" article, linked to the party's governing line, made realism and compromise politically radioactive in Armenia Ter-Petrosyan.
The movement's fall in 1998 transferred power to the Karabakh-linked security elite around Robert Kocharyan and later Serzh Sargsyan. HHSh is therefore the party of both national mobilisation and the first serious Armenian argument for compromise. editorial
Events
| Year | Event | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Formation of the Karabakh Committee | leadership |
Members & leaders
| Figure | Role | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Levon Ter-Petrosyan | chairman; President | , |