Armenia’s Yerkrapah Volunteer Union elects new head
Lawmaker Sasun Mikayelyan was unanimously elected board chairman of the Yerkrapah (Defender of the Land) Volunteer Union of Armenia at the 12th Congress of the union held on Sunday, 7 April.
Addressing the congress, Mikayelyan stressed he has served and will continue to serve Armenia, Artsakh and his people.
At the meeting, it was also decided to reduce the number of board members from 186 to 25.
Yerkrapah Volunteer Union is a non-governmental group that consisted of 6,000 Nagorno-Karabakh War veterans, formed by Sparapet Vazgen Sargsyan in 1993. The Yerkrapah is a large and influential veteran group actively involved in the Artsakh Liberation War. According to Thomas de Waal, after 1994 "the veterans' group Yerkrapah became the most powerful organization in the country."