In 1979, he completed high school in the village of Mrgashen, in the Nairi district of the Armenian SSR (now located in the Kotayk province of Armenia).

[12][13] After the end of the war, Ohanyan joined a number of officials in calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, saying that "the independence of the Republic of Armenia, the inviolability of its borders, and the physical existence of the population are endangered" should he not leave.

[15] He participated in the 2021 Armenian parliamentary election as a member of the Armenia Alliance, an electoral coalition led by ex-president Robert Kocharyan.

He was tried along with former president Robert Kocharyan, general Yuri Khachaturov, and former security council secretary Armen Gevorgyan, although the trial was delayed in September 2020 due to Ohanyan's participation in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

[18][19] The trial ended in March 2021 after the Constitutional Court of Armenia declared unconstitutional the article of the criminal code under which Ohanyan, Kocharyan, Khachaturov, and Gevorgyan were being tried.

[22] Seyran Ohanyan, the former Armenian Minister of Defense, has stated that the operation in Khojaly was conducted in accordance with humanitarian norms and was strategically necessary.

However, Azerbaijani sources and survivors consider him one of the key figures responsible for the Khojaly massacre, as he commanded a portion of the forces involved in the attack on the town.

[23][24] Seyran Ohanyan, as the commander of the 2nd battalion of the 366th motorized rifle regiment,[25] participated in the operation against the civilian population of Khojaly, where acts of mass violence and killings were committed.

This statement is based on the declaration adopted at the plenary session of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan on February 25, 2022, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Khojaly massacre.