He was the son of Hovhanes-Bek Ishkhanian, a civil servant in the Customs and Excise, a well-known man in Nagrono-Karabakh and a close friend of Armenian bishop Vahan Ter-Georgian.

In May 1917, Ishkhanian returned to Shusha and actively participated in the organization of the social order and the establishment of a self-government in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Simultaneously he was appointed as member of the Armenian-Tatar Committee (which had the chief task to maintain peaceful coexist between the Armenian majority and the Azeri minority in Nagorno-Karabakh, particularly in Shusha).

Being a co-editor of the government's official newspaper "Artsakh", Ishkhanian wrote an article on March 7, 1919, entitled "Get your bloody hands off".

[1]: 372 In his speech in the 4th Karabakh Congress Ishkhanian expressed his concern thus: The Provisional National Council has performed its explicit duty by not recognizing and not resigning itself to the rule of Azerbaijan and at the same time applied to Yerevan, that the Government [of Armenia] should do the necessary.

In April 1919 general Shuttleworth tried for the last time to persuade the 5th Karabakh Congress to "temporary recognize the Azerbaijani jurisdiction", but in vain.

He remembered with inspiration the government they had formed, where statesmen of different political ideas worked together, but with pain and regret - the next tragic developments in Nagorno-Karabakh, the destruction and the Shusha pogrom, (at the time he had been in Karakilisa), where among many others, his parents were killed.