Armen Nazaryan started judo in 1990 in the Sports School of Hrazdan. Nazaryan was first interested in boxing, but moved to judo in 1993. Since 1995, he has been trained by Karen Abagyan. In 2003, he became the Youth European Champion and won a bronze medal at the adult 2003 European Judo Championships. He won a bronze medal again at the 2004 European Judo Championships the following year and competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Nazaryan won a gold medal at the 2005 European Judo Championships in Rotterdam in the weight category of 60 kg. He won all five fights and defeated the current European Champion Ludwig Paischer of Austria in the final. With this success, Nazaryan went down in history as the first European Champion in the history of Armenian judo.