predecessor successor religion birth_place president party office primeminister birth_date term_start article_title term_end name alma_mater
leonard petrosyan '' position established '' bako sahakyan naira melkumian armenian apostolic stepanakert soviet union , nagorno-karabakh autonomous oblast , azerbaijan ssr , robert kocharyan leonard petrosyan independent 3rd president of nagorno-karabakh foreign minister of nagorno-karabakh leonard petrosyan zhirayr poghosyan anushavan danielyan 22 june 1957 8 september 1997 23 july 1993 arkadi ghukasyan
 7 september 2007 8 september 1997 arkadi ghukasyan Արկադի Ղուկասյան yerevan state university
arkadi ghukasyan

arkadi ghukasyan -lrb- , born 22 june 1957 -rrb- was the third president of the self-proclaimed nagorno-karabakh republic .
he was elected as the president on 8 september 1997 and re-elected in 2002 , until his term ended on 19 july 2007 and was succeeded by bako sahakyan .
born in stepanakert , in the nagorno karabakh administrative republic of the azerbaijan ssr on 22 june 1957 , he graduated in 1979 from yerevan state university with a degree in linguistics .
he started his working career as a correspondent for `` soviet karabagh '' newspaper , becoming its deputy editor-in-chief in 1981 .
in 1991 ghukasyan was elected to the first parliament of the nagorno-karabakh republic .
in september 1992 , he was appointed political adviser to the chairman of the state defense committee -lrb- sdc -rrb- , and headed the nkr delegations during osce negotiations with azerbaijan .
ghukasyan has been a member of nagorno-karabakh 's security council since 1993 .
on 23 july 1993 he became the first foreign minister of the nagorno-karabakh republic .
he survived an assassination attempt in 2000 .
samvel babayan , whom he had recently sacked as defence minister , who than was convicted of organising the attack and sentenced to 14 years in prison .
he has divorced once and remarried .
