On 7 March 1981 the system was triumphantly opened, becoming the eighth Soviet Metro system, with a first four station stage of 7.6 kilometres.
On 28 December 1999, the Metro was named after Karen Demirchyan, the man who was responsible for changing the status of the Rapid Tram system into becoming a Metro system, after he was killed two months earlier in a terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament.