Harutyunyan was born in Stepanakert, the capital of the Republic, in 1973. He attended Yerevan State Institute of Economy in 1990 and two years after, in 1992, joined the self-defence forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and took part in Nagorno-Karabakh War. After the war, he moved from Yerevan State Institute of Economy to Artsakh State University Faculty of Economics and graduated in 1995.