By Florence Avakian
Special to the Mirror-Spectator
NEW YORK — Armenia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Zohrab Mnatsakanian assumed his current position eight months ago, following several assignments in Armenia and Europe. On June 10, 2014, this seasoned diplomat presented his credentials to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
Before his current assignment, Mnatsakanian had a 23-year career in foreign affairs and diplomacy. His posts have included a three-year term as deputy minister of foreign affairs in Armenia, chief negotiator for the European Union-Armenia Association Agreement, another three year term as the ambassador to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and before that as ambassador to Switzerland, and ambassador to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva.
Born in 1966, he is a graduate of the Department of International Economic Relations at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and has a master’s degree in Western European Politics from Victoria University of Manchester, in the United Kingdom. He is married with two sons, the elder of whom has completed his two-year military assignment in Armenia, and the younger who has just started his two-year stint. With obvious glee, he revealed that his family includes a 6-year-old dog named Archibald who is with his family in Yerevan.