Paruyr Hayrikyan

Paruyr Hayrikyan
Hayrikyan in 2011
Personal details
Born	July 5, 1949 Nubarashen, Yerevan, Soviet Union
Political party	National United Party (1966-1987) Union for National Self-Determination (1987-)
Occupation	politician, composer
Religion	Armenian Apostolic
Website	hayrikyan.com

Paruyr Arshaviri Hayrikyan (Traditional Armenian: Պարոյր Արշավիրի Հայրիկեան, Eastern Armenian: Պարույր Արշավիրի Հայրիկյան, born July 5, 1949, Yerevan) is an Armenian politician and former Soviet dissident. Hayrikyan is one of the founders and most active leaders of the democratic movement in the Soviet Union. He is also a writer and an accomplished composer. He is the author of several patriotic songs popular in Armenia and Armenian Diaspora.

Hayrikyan is a descendant of natives of Van and Constantinople. While he was in Nubarashen secondary school, Hayrikyan established the Union of Armenian Youth. In 1966 Hayrikyan was admitted to the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute. In 1967, he became a member of Armenia's underground National United Party (NUP). As a member of NUP Hayrikyan founded a new youth organization called Shant. Hayrikyan risen to head of the NUP in 1968. He managed to establish several groups of the NUP, and to publish 5,000 copies of Erkounk (Torments) newspaper. The newspaper bore the motto: "Free Armenia or Death!" On March 29, 1969, Hayrikyan was arrested by KGB and sentenced to 4 years in prison in a special camp for political prisoners in Mordovia.

In Soviet times, Hayrikyan was placed several times in penal labor camps for his political views and activities (he spent about 18 years in Soviet prison, including more than 300 days in solitary confinement).

In 1987, Paruyr Hayrikyan became leader and founder of the Union for National Self-Determination (UNSD) political party. He was eventually stripped of Soviet citizenship and exiled to Ethiopia after his accusations that the Soviet leadership instigated the Sumgait pogroms of Armenian population in Azerbaijan. In Addis Ababa Hayrikyan applied for and was granted asylum by the United States, where he remained for some time. During this period, Paruyr Hayrikyan acquired wide popularity, and was elected Chairman of the International Coordinating Center of the national democratic movement of the USSR, "Democracy and Independence". On May 20, 1990, while he was still in exile in the USA, he was elected a member of the Armenian Supreme Council. In 1990, following pressure of a group of United States senators led by Bob Dole, Mikhail Gorbachev restored Hayrikyan's citizenship and allowed him to return. Since then Hayrikyan has taken an active part in Armenian political life. As a candidate for Armenian presidential election, 1991 he was ranked second with 7% votes. Hayrikyan's supporters claimed that there were violations during the campaign, including an act of violence committed against him and his supporters in the village of Paravakar (Tavoush District). These charges were subsequently judged to be true by the Armenian court.