Levon Mnatsakanyan

Levon Mnatsakanyan is an Armenian lieutenant general and one of the senior military commanders of the Republic of Artsakh. Born in Stepanakert, he began his military service during the Soviet period and later became part of the Armenian military structures formed during the Artsakh liberation movement and the first Artsakh war.

Mnatsakanyan built much of his career in artillery and command positions in the Artsakh Defense Army and the Armed Forces of Armenia. He later completed advanced military education at the General Staff Academy in Russia and returned to senior command positions in Artsakh. He served as deputy commander of the Defense Army before being appointed Commander of the Artsakh Defense Army and Defense Minister.

He held the position of Defense Minister and Defense Army commander from 2015 to 2018, including during the Azerbaijani attack of April 2016. After leaving that post, Mnatsakanyan served as head of Artsakh’s emergency service and later as police chief. He also participated in the defense of Artsakh during the 2020 war.

Following Azerbaijan’s September 2023 attack and the forced displacement of Artsakh’s Armenian population, Mnatsakanyan attempted to cross into Armenia through the illegal Azerbaijani checkpoint near the Hakari Bridge in the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor. Azerbaijani forces took him hostage and transferred him to Baku.

He was later placed in the mass sham trial of Artsakh’s former political and military leadership. Azerbaijani prosecutors sought to portray his decades of service in the Defense Army as criminal activity and brought sweeping charges against him. In 2026, the Baku Military Court illegally sentenced Mnatsakanyan to life imprisonment. The Baku Court of Appeals later left the sentence unchanged. He remains an illegally held Armenian hostage in Azerbaijan.