He participated in and won the 2020 Artsakhian general election, thereby becoming the 4th President of Artsakh.[5][6] During the first week of his presidency, he signed two highly publicized executive orders: The first one changed the seat of the National Assembly of Artsakh from Stepanakert to Shushi, while the second made all tertiary education in Artsakh free. During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan claimed that the Azerbaijani Army had severely wounded Harutyunyan, who had visited the front that morning.[7][8] These allegations were denied by both Harutyunyan and his government.[9]