Hranush Kharatyan

Hranush Kharatyan (Armenian: Հրանուշ Խառատյան; born February 18, 1952)[1] is an Armenian ethnographer.[2] She also specializes in Caucasus studies, minority groups and Armenian studies.[1] She has been a member of the Pre-Parliament civil initiative since November 2012.[3]

Kharatyan in 2008

Born in the village of Dağ Cəyir, in Azerbaijan's Shamkir District, Kharatyan graduated from the Yerevan State University (YSU) with a history degree in 1975.[4] She earned the degree of a Candidate of Sciences from the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography in Moscow by 1979.[1]

Between 1979 and 1989 she worked as a researcher at the Oriental studies Institute of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences.[1] In 1989-92 she was a research fellow at the Department of Ethnography at the YSU.[1] She headed the same department between 1994 and 2000.[1] In 1992-93 she was the Deputy Mayor of Yerevan, Armenia's capital.[1] She was appointed head of the Department of National Minorities and Religious Affairs in the Armenian Government[5] in 2004, which she resigned in 2008.[1]

Kharatyan is fluent in Armenian, Russian and has some knowledge of Azerbaijani.[1] She is married with 2 children.[4]