Prior to entering politics, Saroyan was a major general in the Armenian Ground Forces, commanding the 2nd Army Corps during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

[3] His father, Firdus Saroyan, was the director of the agricultural department of the city of Etchmiadzin; the main office, a two-story fortified compound, would later become the family's home.

[3][5] On 13 February 2007, Saroyan resigned his command of the 4th Army Corps in order to run for the Parliament of Armenia in the 2007 Armenian parliamentary election.

[6] Saroyan stated that he became a politician in order to allow command of the army to pass to a new generation of soldiers and to help fix the socio-economic situation in Armenia.

[5] Saroyan successfully contested the 19th electoral district as an independent candidate, though would sit as a member of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia's parliamentary group.

[3] In the 2017 Armenian parliamentary election, Saroyan ran in the 6th electoral district, defeating fellow Republican Party MP Arakel Movsisyan [hy] and six other candidates to win re-election.

Other members of the delegation included fellow Republican Party MP Manvel Grigoryan, Syunik Province governor Suren Khachatryan, and Armenian ambassador to Georgia Yuri Vardanyan.

[10] In 2017, Saroyan opposed the dismissal of Haykaz Baghmanyan [hy], a powerful general who was fired by President Serzh Sargsyan due to allegations of corruption.

[17] However, a 2018 investigation by the National Security Service revealed that Grigoryan had stolen multiple crates of military supplies, including food and weapons.