Throughout the 1980s, he occupied various posts in Nagorno-Karabakh's communist youth league and party. At one point he served as deputy secretary of the Stepanakert Komsomol, which was headed by his later successor as president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan. By February 1988, Kocharyan became one of the leaders in the Karabakh movement as a member of the Krunk ("Crane") organization. The Karabakh movement, which started in Nagorno-Karabakh then spread to Soviet Armenia, sought to achieve the transfer of the autonomous region from Azerbaijan to Armenia. After the organization broke apart, he founded the Miatsum ("Unification") organization. In 1989, he was elected to Soviet Armenia's Supreme Soviet. In 1991, Kocharyan was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the newly established Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).