Karen Karapetyan is an economist and politician who is now the Prime Minister of Armenia. Over the years, he was mayor of Yerevan, worked in the leadership of Gazprom, studied scientific detail and published articles on economics.
Education and becoming
Karen Karapetyan was born in 1963 in Stepanakert, in Nagorno-Karabakh. Soon his family moved to Armenia, where he studied at school No. 128 in Yerevan. He also decided to continue his education in the capital of the Armenian SSR, enrolling in Yerevan State University. Karen Karapetyan studied well and in 1980 he graduated with honors from the most complicated faculty of applied mathematics.
After graduating, he went to work in the accounting center of the State Planning Commission of Armenia, at the same time he was engaged in scientific activities. In 1989, Karapetyan successfully defended his thesis on a purely specialized economic topic.
In Soviet times, he still did not think about political activity, fully concentrating on work and science.
The winds of perestroika, which revived the political sphere of public life in the republics of the USSR, did not affect him either. Karen Karapetyan continued to work in the State Planning Commission, paying little attention to the changes taking place around.
Economic activity in independent Armenia
After Armenia gained independence, a theoretical economist continues his academic activities for several years. He is a member of the association of science and culture, he teaches at Yerevan State University.
However, a few years later, dramatic changes took place in the biography of Karen Karapetyan. According to rumors that circulated in society, he was a relative of the influential Robert Kocharian, who later became president of the country.
Like it or not, but in 1996 the theoretical economist got the opportunity to put into practice his knowledge and skills.
The relatively young Karen Karapetyan was appointed to the position of deputy chairman of Armenergo. Two years later, he headed the republic’s energy complex and led it until 2001. Then Karapetyan was sent for promotion and received the portfolio of the Minister of Energy of Armenia.
Karen Karapetyan did not work long in the cabinet, in the same 2001, on the recommendation of Robert Kocheryan, he was nominated by the general director of the joint Armenian-Russian enterprise ArmRosgazprom. Here he proved himself to be a fairly successful and effective manager and worked until 2010.
Mayor of Yerevan
Having reached maturity, Karen Karapetyan decided to prove himself in the political field. He began by being elected to the Council of Elders of Yerevan in 2009 from the Republican Party of Armenia. In December 2010, by the decision of the Council, Karapetyan was elected mayor of the city and soon assumed the duties of mayor of the Armenian capital.
Accustomed over the ten years to the sole leadership of a large company, the new mayor began his activity with loud statements and demands, ignoring the resistance and political situation. In 2011, he set the condition for City Hall employees to learn English and improve their Russian skills.
This decision was met ambiguously by its employees. If young children were happy to be able to tighten up their English, and even during working hours, the old people united themselves in such a linguistic educational program, suspecting the boss of a desire to get rid of old personnel.
War with the street
However, these were only flowers, the new mayor caused a real storm of anger against him by the war with street vendors. As in any eastern city, in Yerevan, the tradition of open-air trading was of particular importance, thousands of people fed due to this. Therefore, the mayor's decision to ban street trading unleashed a real war. Enraged merchants staged demonstrations and rallies near the city hall building, demanding the restoration of their rights, oppositionists joined them and also attacked Karen Karapetyan.
However, the mayor did not give up, the next step to ennoble the city was the mass demolition of stalls and stalls. To avoid an explosion, the President of Armenia had to intervene , who cooled the mayor’s ardor and asked him to suspend the city’s beautification program.
From Yerevan to Moscow and back
In 2011, Karen Karapetyan left the hot post of mayor of Yerevan. This was due to the invitation to work in the central office of Gazprom. An effective manager has established himself well during the time in the Armenian division of the gas giant and was invited to the post of vice president of Gazprombank. For several years, he replaced a number of senior posts, until he was appointed Deputy General Director of Gazprom’s international projects.
By 2016, the foreign policy of Armenia began to shift towards Russia, and President Serzh Sargsyan decided to return the former mayor of Yerevan to the country and put him at the head of the cabinet of ministers.
Sargsyan did not hide the fact that he appointed an experienced manager as prime minister in order to improve relations with Russia and attract investments from Moscow to the country.
After becoming the chairman of the cabinet, the politician immediately announced the program of fundamental reforms of the country's economy aimed at eradicating corruption and improving the business climate.
A family
The current prime minister is married. The children of Karen Karapetyan are already adults and are actively trying themselves in state and business activity at various posts.