military parade in 1999.
Soviet Army and CIS service He graduated from the
Caspian Higher Naval School in 1978. From 1978 to 1989, he fought in the
Soviet–Afghan War. Harutiunyan than graduated from the
Grechko Naval Academy and the
Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union in 1991. He switched allegiance to
Armenia prior to the
fall of the Soviet Union. Harutiunyan was named Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Defence Committee of Armenia in 1991, in the middle of the
First Nagorno-Karabakh War. In 1992, he became the Deputy Chief of Staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces of the
Commonwealth of Independent States. Harutiunyan was chosen as the representative of the Armenian Armed Forces at the CIS in 1994.
First term as defence minister (1999–2000) In 1999, Harutiunyan returned to Armenia to replace Vazgen Sargsyan as
Defence Minister of Armenia on 11 June 1999 after Sargsyan was elected Prime Minister. Harutiunyan joined Sargsyan and Head of the Government Staff
Shahen Karamanukyan in the meeting of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) heads of government in
Yalta, Ukraine on 7 October 1999. In February 2000, he discussed a plan for cooperation between Armenia and Belarus with his Belarusian counterpart,
Aleksandr Petrovich Chumakov during his visit to
Minsk to discuss Armenian use of Belarusian military plants for upgrading Armenian military equipment. He left the post of defence minister on 20 May 2000. On 22 July 2002, Harutiunyan was stripped of his military rank of lieutenant general by order of President of Armenia
Robert Kocharyan. == Career (2000-2020) ==