Robert Kocharyan was born on August 31, 1954 in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region.

He graduated from secondary school in Stepanakert. His father’s family was saved during the 1918 massacres of Baku Armenians by moving to Stepanakert, but his father, Sedrak Kocharyan, who was 8 years old at the time, was lost, miraculously appearing on a ship with other refugees and moved to Tashkent. There with a rich Armenian

took shelter, worked and attended school. After 6 years, he was found by his grandmother’s brother and returned to the family at the age of 14. In the following years, his father was one of the officials of the agricultural sector of Artsakh, he was the founder of the city park of Stepanakert. Kocharyan grew up with his parents, older sister Iveta, older brother Valera and grandmother in Stepanakert[4].