Levon Ter-Petrosyan

Levon Hakobi Ter-Petrosyan (Armenian: Լևոն Հակոբի Տեր-Պետրոսյան; born 9 January 1945), also known by his initials LTP, is an Armenian politician and historian who served as the first president of Armenia from 1991 until his resignation in 1998.

A senior researcher at the Matenadaran institute, he rose to prominence as a leading figure of the Karabakh movement for the unification of the Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, which began in 1988. After Armenia declared independence from the Soviet Union in September 1991, Ter-Petrosyan was elected by a landslide as the country's first president in the 1991 Armenian presidential election, receiving an overwhelming public support. In his role as a head of state, he led the country through the First Nagorno-Karabakh War with neighboring Azerbaijan.

He was reelected in the 1996 presidential election, which was marred by accusations of electoral fraud, sparking mass protests led by runner-up Vazgen Manukyan. The mass rallies were suppressed by military force. Due to disagreements with key members of his government over a peace proposal for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, especially Defence Minister Vazgen Sargsyan and Prime Minister Robert Kocharyan, Ter-Petrosyan resigned on 3 February 1998.

From his resignation up until 2007, Ter-Petrosyan was inactive in the political scene. However, he made a political comeback in September 2007 and ran for president in 2008. He faced one of his former government members, then-Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan. According to official results, he earned 21.5% of the total vote. Ter-Petrosyan claimed the elections were rigged and led thousands of his supporters in mass protests against the alleged electoral fraud and called for new elections. After a week of mass protests, the government used police and military force to disperse his supporters, resulting in the deaths of ten people on 1 March 2008.