Tigran Grishayi Arzakantsyan ( hy, Տիգրան Գրիշայի Արզաքանցյան; born 7 August 1966) is an Armenian businessman and politician who formerly served as a deputy of the

National Assembly of Armenia The National Assembly of Armenia ( hy, Հայաստանի Հանրապետության Ազգային ժողով, ''Hayastani Hanrapetyut'yan Azgayin zhoghov'' or simply Ազգային ժողով, ԱԺ ''Azgayin Zhoghov'', ''AZh''), also infor ...

. He is the owner of the Great Valley wine and cognac company and is the current Chairman of the Strength of the Fatherland party.

Biography

Tigran Arzakantsyan was born on 7 August 1966 in the city of Kamo of the

Armenian SSR The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...

(now

Gavar Gavar ( hy, Գավառ) is a town and urban municipal community in Armenia serving as the administrative centre of Gegharkunik Province. It is situated among the high mountains of Gegham range to the west of Lake Sevan, with an average height o ...

Gegharkunik Province Gegharkunik ( hy, Գեղարքունիք, ) is a province ('' marz'') of Armenia. Its capital and largest city is Gavar. Gegharkunik Province is located at the eastern part of Armenia, bordering Azerbaijan. It includes the exclave of Artsvashe ...

). From 1979 to 1984, he studied at the Zootechnic and Veterinary College of Kamo and graduated as a

veterinary technician Paraveterinary worker is the professional of veterinary science that performs procedures autonomously or semi autonomously, as part of a veterinary assistance system. The job role varies throughout the world, and common titles include veterinary n ...

. After graduation he was drafted into the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

and served there from 1984 to 1986. From 1986 to 1998, Arzakantsyan was engaged in business in Russia. In 1998, together with Robert Azaryan he established the Great Valley wine and cognac company. In 2003, he founded the Tigran Arzakantsyan Charitable Foundation, which is managed by his mother, Varsenik Grigoryan. In 2008, he bought one of the factories of

Hine Cognac Thomas Hine & Co. is a leading manufacturer of cognac, owned by the French company EDV SAS. Origins The Hine company is named after its proprietor Thomas Hine (sometimes recorded as Thomas Hone), an Englishman from Dorset, England. The company wa ...

House located in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Outside of the cognac business, he also owns 51% of the shares in Paramount Gold Mining CJSC, which is engaged in gold mining in Armenia.

Political activity

In the parliamentary elections on 25 May 2003, he was elected as a deputy of the third convocation of the

from the

Republican Party of Armenia The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA, hy, Հայաստանի Հանրապետական Կուսակցություն, ՀՀԿ; ''Hayastani Hanrapetakan Kusaktsutyun'', ''HHK'') is a national-conservative political party in Armenia led by the thir ...

. He was a member of the standing committee on financial, credit, budgetary and economic issues. In the parliamentary elections on 12 May 2007, he was elected as a deputy of the fourth convocation of the National Assembly from the Republican Party of Armenia in election district 22 of

. From 19 June 2007 to 11 July 2008, he was a member of the standing committee on healthcare, maternity and childhood, then until 4 May 2009 he was a member of the standing committee on social issues, from 4 May 2009 until the end of the fourth convocation he a member of a standing committee on economic issues. A number of Armenian media sources named him one of the most frequent absentees of parliament sessions. In 2016, the State Revenue Committee of Armenia charged him with inflicting of major damage to the state. In the 2017 parliamentary elections, he again ran for parliament from the Republican Party of Armenia in Gegharkunik Province, but he lost to his party fellows in his election district and was not elected as a deputy of the new convocation. Arzakantsyan was set to head the electoral list of the

Democratic Party of Armenia The Democratic Party of Armenia ( hy, Հայաստանի Դեմոկրատական Կուսակցություն, ''Hayastani Demokratakan Kusaktsutyun'') is a democratic socialist political party in Armenia. It was established in 1991 by Aram Gasp ...

in the

2021 Armenian parliamentary election Snap parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 20 June 2021. The elections had initially been scheduled for 9 December 2023, but were called earlier due to a political crisis following the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War and an alleged attempted ...

held on 20 June 2021. However, on 10 June, he was disqualified from running for office as he was unable to meet the residency requirement (out of the past 1,461 days, Arzakantsyan had been absent from the country for 1,005 of them). In order to participate in an election, a candidate must be resident in Armenia for four years preceding the election date. On 3 April 2022, Arzakantsyan founded the Strength of the Fatherland party and was nominated its Chairman.

Personal life

Arzakantsyan has three children from his first marriage. He is currently married to Natalia Rotenberg.

References

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arzakantsyan, Tigran Armenian businesspeople Members of the National Assembly (Armenia) Republican Party of Armenia politicians 1966 births Living people