Arman Kirakossian was born on September 10, 1956, in Armenia’s capital of Yerevan, into the family of John Kirakossian (1929 -1985) and Lia Ghazaketsian (1933-2003). His father John Kirakossian, a notable Armenian historian and statesman who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1975-1985, has enjoyed great popularity and renown in Armenia and Diaspora for his ground-breaking research on the Armenian Genocide and Armenia’s modern history.

Arman Kirakossian graduated from the Anton Chekhov School No. 55 in Yerevan, and enrolled in the Khachatur Abovian Armenian State Pedagogical University’s Department of History and Geography from 1973 to 1977, majoring in History and Social Sciences. Upon graduation, he received the diploma qualifying him as History and Geography Teacher, and he then taught these subjects at the Secondary School of the village of Baghramian in the Ejmiatzin District of Armenia, near Yerevan. In 1977-1980 Arman Kirakossian enrolled in post-graduate studies at the Khachatur Abovian Armenian State Pedagogical University, at the Department of General History. He defended his Candidate’s Thesis in 1981.

From 1980 to 1986, Arman Kirakossian worked at the Center of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, starting as research assistant, then rising in rank to become a researcher, senior researcher, and Chief of Section on Armenian Studies abroad. In 1986-1990, during the period of perestroika reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, Arman Kirakossian worked at the Department of Science and Education of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia as an instructor and, later, as consultant on international relations. In 1990, he returned to work in the Academy of Sciences, as Project Director on the Diaspora and the Armenian Genocide at the Department on History and Culture of the Armenian Diaspora.

In September 1991, immediately after the reestablishment of independence of Armenia, Arman Kirakossian was invited to join the Foreign Ministry, where he became First Deputy Foreign Minister. From October 1992 to March 1993, Arman Kirakossian served as Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1994 he was appointed the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Greece, a position he held until 1999. In 1999, he defended his doctoral thesis at the History Research Institute of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, receiving the scientific rank of Doctor of Sciences in History. Dr. Kirakossian served as Armenian Ambassador to the United States from 1999 to 2005.