Nairi Hunanyan

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Nairi Hunanyan (Armenian: Նաիրի Հունանյան) is an Armenian journalist who led an armed attack on the Armenian Parliament on October 27, 1999.

Hunanyan was born in Yerevan in 1965. He graduated from the Department of Philology of Yerevan State University. In 1988 he became an active participant of the Armenian National Liberation Movement and was one of the founders of The Union of Armenian Students. He was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation but was eventually expelled from the party. Later he founded and managed the Horizon information agency. From 1994 to 1997 he lived in Crimea, Ukraine, teaching the Armenian language at a school in Eupatoria. He returned to Armenia in 1997.

On October 27, 1999, he, along with four other gunmen, entered the Parliament, killed the prime minister, parliamentary speaker and six other officials. In his statement, Nairi Hunanyan accused the government of leading Armenia into political and economic ruin. On October 28 the attackers surrendered. He and the gunmen were later sentenced to life in prison.