Genrikh Poghosyan ( hy, Հենրիք Պողոսյան) was the First Secretary of the

Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), DQMV, hy, Լեռնային Ղարաբաղի Ինքնավար Մարզ, ԼՂԻՄ was an autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic that was created on July 7, 1923. Its cap ...

Committee of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. He was appointed in February 1988, succeeding

Boris Kevorkov Boris Sarkisovich Kevorkov ( hy, Բորիս Կևորկով) (1932–1998) was the First Secretary of the "Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast Committee" of the Communist Party of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. He was appointed in 1973 ...

. The government of the Azerbaijan SSR abolished the autonomous oblast in 1991.

Biography

Poghosyan was the Deputy Secretary of the CPSU committee for the

up until 1988. Secretary

was very loyal to Azerbaijani leaders in Baku, and was resented by the Armenian community. During the

Karabakh movement The Karabakh movement ( hy, Ղարաբաղյան շարժում, also the Artsakh movement Արցախյան շարժում) was a national mass movement in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh from 1988 to 1991 that advocated for the transfer of the ma ...

, 87 Armenian deputies from the Regional Soviet called an emergency session of the assembly on 20 February 1988 in response to Armenian demonstrations in Stepanakert calling for the unification of Karabakh and

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

. Kevorkov had tried and failed to stop the session's taking place, and when 110 Armenian deputies voted unanimously for the resolution, calling for Nagorny Karabakh to join Soviet Armenia, tried to swipe the stamp needed to confirm the resolution. Kevorkov was removed from office by Moscow emissaries and succeeded by Poghosyan on 24 February 1988. Poghosyan was much more popular among Karabakh Armenians. A few months later he began to support the campaign for unification with Armenia. Poghosyan held his position as secretary until the autonomous oblast was abolished on 26 November 1991, at which time the

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Artsakh, officially the Republic of Artsakh () or the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (),, is a breakaway state in the South Caucasus whose territory is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan. Artsakh controls a part of the former N ...

had been declared two months prior and the First Nagorno-Karabakh War had turned full-scale.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Poghosian, Genrikh Soviet politicians Armenian politicians Soviet Armenians Politicians from the Republic of Artsakh First Nagorno-Karabakh War People from the Republic of Artsakh 1931 births 2000 deaths