Raffi Hovannisian

Who is Raffi Hovannisian?

Raffi K. Hovannisian is an American-born Armenian politician, the first Foreign Minister of Armenia and the founding leader of Heritage party. He is the founder of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies, the republic’s first independent research center.

Hovannisian, a descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors, was born in Fresno, CA to Richard Hovannisian, Ph.D., professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History at the UCLA, and Vartiter Hovannisian, MD. He moved to Armenia with his family in 1990. In 1991, Hovannisian was appointed as the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the newly independent Republic of Armenia by then-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan. In 2002, Hovannisian founded the Heritage party. It gained 6% of the popular vote in the 2007 parliamentary election, which gave 7 seats in a 131-seat National Assembly of Armenia. During the 2008 presidential election, Heritage supported main opposition candidate, ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, although Hovannisian voted against that decision during the party convention. In 2012 parliamentary election, which was not recognized by any opposition parties, Heritage won 5 seats.