Today Marks the Birthday of Nikol Pashinyan

The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, celebrates his 45th birthday today. He was born on June 1, 1975, in the town of Ijevan.

Pashinyan completed his primary school education at Ijevan High School No. 1. From 1991 to 1995, he studied at Yerevan State University. However, he was expelled in his final year due to political reasons.

Since 1992, he has engaged in active journalism, working with various newspapers such as "Dprutyun," "Hayastan," "Lragir," "Lragir Or," and "Molorak." In 1998, he founded the newspaper "Oragir," which was shut down by a court ruling in 1999 due to political reasons.

In 1999, he was appointed as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Haykakan Zhamanak," a position he held until 2012. In August 1999, he was sentenced to one year in prison on political grounds. Following the demands of the international and Armenian journalism community, the appellate court delayed his imprisonment for one year, resulting in the sentence not being enforced.

In 2007, he became a founding member of the "Alternative" public-political coalition. He was the leading candidate on the proportional list of the "Impeachment" bloc in the 2007 parliamentary elections and was a member of the campaign headquarters of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan in the 2008 elections.

After the events of March 1, 2008, he was on the run and spent one year and four months in hiding. On July 1, 2009, he voluntarily surrendered to the General Prosecutor's Office, where he was arrested and subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison in January 2010 for organizing mass riots on March 1, 2008. He was widely recognized by the Armenian and international community as a political prisoner and a prisoner of conscience. After spending one year and eleven months in prison, he was released on May 27, 2011, under a pardon decision.

In the 2012 parliamentary elections, he was elected as a member of the National Assembly on the proportional list of the "Armenian National Congress" coalition. From 2012 to 2013, he served as the chairman of the Ethics Commission of the National Assembly.

In 2013, he established the "Civil Contract" public-political organization and served as a member of its governing council from 2013 to 2015. Since 2015, he has been a member of the board of the political party formed based on that organization.

In May 2016, he was the commander of the volunteer detachment of the "Civil Contract" party. He was elected as a member of the National Assembly in the April 2, 2017 elections on the proportional list of the "Yelk" bloc, representing the Central, Erebuni, Norq-Marash, and Nubarakshen administrative districts from the 4th electoral district. Since May 2017, he has been the leader of the "Yelk" parliamentary faction.

On March 31, 2018, he launched the "My Step" movement from Vardanants Square in Gyumri, leading to a non-violent, velvet, popular revolution in April-May of that year. On May 8, 2018, Pashinyan was elected as Prime Minister by the National Assembly at the request of the popular movement.

On October 16, 2018, in accordance with his pre-election promise, he resigned to enable early elections, fulfilling the duties of the acting Prime Minister.

On December 9, 2018, in the early elections to the National Assembly, he headed the proportional list of the "My Step" electoral bloc and was the bloc's candidate for Prime Minister. The bloc secured approximately 70% of the votes from the electorate, leading to his appointment as Prime Minister of Armenia on January 14, 2019, in accordance with Article 149, Part 1, of the Constitution and the procedure established by Article 89 of the Constitution.

Pashinyan is married and has three daughters and one son.