Onik Gasparyan

He was born in January 1970. He studied at Secondary School No. 5 in Ijevan from 1976-1985 and at Secondary School No. 147 in Yerevan from 1985-1986. He joined the Armenian Army in 1993. He previously served in Soviet Armed Forces from 1988. In his early career, he participated in the defence of Armenia in Saro’s detachment in Ijevan. In 1994, he was seriously wounded in a mine explosion while performing a combat mission. In the mid-90s, he studied at the Vistrel Higher Officer Courses of Russian Ministry of Defence. He studied and graduated with honours from the Russian Combined Arms Academy of Russia from 1998-2001. From 2001-2005, he was the Commander of Military Unit 51191, where he served before being transferred to Military Unit 68617. He was the Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of 4th Army Corps from 2007 and 2008. In 2008, he graduated with honours from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia.[1]

He became the Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of 3rd Army Corps in 2010, being promoted to commander on 11 April 2012. He was promoted to the rank of Major General 21 January 2015, which allowed him to become the Deputy Chief of General Staff in July 2016[2] and First Deputy Chief of General Staff in June 2017.[3] He became a Lieutenant-General in July 2019. On 8 June 2020, he was appointed Chief of Armed Forces General Staff by order of President Armen Sarkissian at the request of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.[4][1][5][6] Defense Minister David Tonoyan introduced Gasparyan to the command staff of Defense Ministry two days later.[7][8][9][10] He was previously considered for the role in 2018, when the media reported he would be appointed. Gasparyan comes from Ijevan, the same town as Prime Minister Pashinyan, so it was speculated that this could have hindered his appointment, in case there would be any perception of favoritism.[11]