YEREVAN, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - Armenia's first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, said at an opposition rally on Friday that he would run in 2008 presidential elections.
Ter-Petrosyan began his political career in the 1960s, and in 1989 was elected deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian Republic.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was elected Armenian president in 1991, and reelected in 1996. He resigned in February 1998 following a series of political and economic problems.
The conflict over Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population, first erupted in 1988 when it declared independence from Azerbaijan and moved to join Armenia.
The current Armenian president is Robert Kocharyan, elected in 1998, and reelected for a second, and according to the Armenian Constitution, final term in 2003.