Robert Kocharyan

Parents

Father, Sedrak Kocharyan was born in 1910, in Astghashen village of Nagorno Karabakh. He graduated from the Dagestan Agricultural Institute, worked as head of the regional department of agriculture, was the First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Nagorno Karabakh regional council and a member of the bureau of the Regional Committee. He was a Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, engaged in research work, and author to more than 20 academic papers on the problems concerning the agriculture of the NK. He died in 1977.

"People who received an academic degree would mostly move to capitals—Yerevan or Baku. Meanwhile, my father was assured that he is needed here, in the Nagorno Karabakh. He, the agriculturer, was creating a garden city within our mountains, building communism, in the ideas of which he believed throughout his whole life."

Mother, Emma Ohanyan was born in 1926, in the Hadrut town of Nagorno Karabakh. She graduated from the Yerevan Veterinary Institute, worked at the Leninavan Scientific and Experimental Base as a researcher, then at the Stepanakert Territorial Experimental Station as a senior researcher. She died in 2015. 

"Household duties were entirely on my mother's shoulders. Determined, reasonably strict and practical, she was the one to set up family rules, keep family accounts and take care of our upbringing. She was responsible for everything related with the education of children."