Sedrak Firdusi Saroyan (; 3 September 1967 – 13 August 2022), also known as Seyran Saroyan, was an Armenian general and politician who served in the Parliament of Armenia from 2007 until his resignation in 2018. During his tenure, Saroyan was an independent politician affiliated with the Republican Party of Armenia. Prior to entering politics, Saroyan was a major general in the Armenian Ground Forces, commanding the 2nd Army Corps during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Early life and military career
Sedrak Saroyan was born on 3 September 1967 in the village of Haykashen in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, then part of the Soviet Union. His father, Firdus Saroyan, was the director of the agricultural department of the city of Etchmiadzin; the main office, a two-story fortified compound, would later become the family's home. After graduating from the local high school in 1984, Saroyan enlisted in the enlisted in the Soviet Army, serving from 1985 until 1987. After leaving the army, he briefly worked as an assistant engineer at a regional firm called Haykimia.
In 1989, Saroyan, a member of the Karabakh movement, recruited and led a detachment of volunteers in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War against Azerbaijan. During the course of the war, the small detachment transformed into a full battalion, the Artsvik-10 operation group. The battalion fought to defend Armenia's border regions and for the "liberation of Artsakh". Saroyan led the battalion in the battles of Kalbajar, , and Zangilan.
In 1992, Saroyan officially joined the Armenian Army, and he was credited with "making a significant contribution to army building and strengthening the army". The following year, he was granted command of the 2nd Army Corps, and at some point he was also granted command of the 4th Army Corps. In 2000, Saroyan was promoted to the rank of major general. Between the late-1990s and the mid-2000s, Saroyan attended several foreign military academies, including the NATO General Staff Academy in Greece and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, graduating from the later with a degree in military security.
Political career
On 13 February 2007, Saroyan resigned his command of the 4th Army Corps in order to run for the Parliament of Armenia in the 2007 Armenian parliamentary election. Saroyan stated that he became a politician in order to allow command of the army to pass to a new generation of soldiers and to help fix the socio-economic situation in Armenia. However, he also stated that should Azerbaijani forces invade Armenia, he would be on frontlines of the war. Saroyan successfully contested the 19th electoral district as an independent candidate, though would sit as a member of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia's parliamentary group. Saroyan was re-elected in the 2012 Armenian parliamentary election. In the 2017 Armenian parliamentary election, Saroyan ran in the 6th electoral district, defeating fellow Republican Party MP and six other candidates to win re-election. While in parliament, Saroyan served as deputy minister of defense and was on the Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs.
During the 2017 election, an investigation conducted by Hetq, an Armenian newspaper, revealed that Saroyan frequently downplayed how many properties he owned. In addition to his father's home in Etchmiadzin and a luxury home in Yerevan, Saroyan owned several parcels of land in Armenia, as well as homes in the Russian cities of Vsevolozhsk and Sochi. The investigation also revealed that Saroyan also owned several properties near the city of Odesa in Ukraine, including a house that was gifted to him in 2010 which he denied ever owning. In addition to properties, Saroyan also owned several businesses, including a beverage company called Sarkop, which he split ownership of with Russian businessman , and a retail company called S. Saroyan Brothers, Ltd.