Armenian News

Dear All 

It was a great pleasure to watch on 2 Armenian news Channels that 

Kathy Mellor and Ralph Yirikian opened another neonatal unit, this 

time in the town of Massis, Ararad region, furnished with the latest 

neonatal sets of UV lights, incubators and CPAP. 

It is admirable and enviable to watch them amongst the hospital staff 

doing the right job .  My Congratulations to Kathy Mellor and Ralph 

Yirikian and their respective supportive teams.

Ara Nahabedian
Retired UK- based Orthopaedic Surgeon


Kathy Mellor is founder of BirthLink UK, a registered charity, and 

Ralph Yirikian is head of Vivacell that provides telecommunication 

services in Armenia. Vivacell is the local sponsor of BirthLink. 


The California Courier Online

December 25, 2014

Mrs. George Clooney to Represent Armenia in European Court
in Armenian Genocide Case
By Harut Sassounian
California Courier Exclusive

Amal Clooney, wife of prominent actor and human rights activist 

George Clooney, will be one of the attorneys representing Armenia 

in the appeal of Perincek vs. Switzerland case at the January 28 

Grand Chamber hearing of the European Court of Human Rights.

Amal Clooney is a prominent international lawyer. She is of 

Lebanese origin. Her maiden name is Amal Ramzi Alamuddin.

The European Court had earlier overturned the Swiss court's 

conviction of Perincek, a Turkish political party leader, for denying 

the Armenian Genocide. 

[more detail in article at the end]

ARMENIA'S CENTRAL BANK RAISES REFINANCING RATE TO 

8.5 PCT FROM 6.75 PCT
Reuters
Dec 23 2014

Dec 23 (Reuters) - Armenia's central bank has raised its key
refinancing rate to 8.5 percent from 6.75 percent on Tuesday.

Annual inflation was at 2.6 percent in November, the central bank said,
up from 2.2 percent in October. Monthly inflation in November was at
1.3 percent, compared to inflation of 1.0 percent in October.

The central bank kept its refinancing rate unchanged at 6.75 percent
in September and November after cutting it from 7.00 percent in
August. Last week, Russia's central bank raised its key interest rate
by 650 basis points to 17 percent. (Reporting by Hasmik Mkrtchyan;
Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Katya Golubkova) 


AMD DEVALUATION DID NOT STIMULATE EXPORTS FROM 

ARMENIA
Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Dec 23 2014

The fall of the dram did not become an incentive to increase exports
from Armenia, as claimed by the central bank of the country, on the
contrary: at the end of November and in December, exports fell by
18%, the chairman of the "Union of Armenian Exporters" Raffi Mkhchyan
said today.

According to the expert, exporters of agricultural commodities
initially could not benefit from the devaluation of the dram, as the
national currency also devalued on the main export market in Russia.

Mkhchyan noted the presence of economists predicting such fluctuations,
whose opinions, however, are not heard. He refused to associate
the impairment of the dram with the situation in Russia, noting
that Armenia has a lot of internal problems that have affected the
financial market, Epress.am reports.

The negative picture was also worsened due to speculations of certain
people, "if it continued longer, the speculation could have led to
even greater panic."

Regarding exports, the chairman of the Union of Armenian Exporters said
that industrial products dominating by up to 65%, the food industry
- 20-25%, and information technology has the rest, which has a lot
of potential.

Food produced in Armenia might not delight abroad, and basically
it is consumed in Germany by Armenians living there, Raffi Mkhchyan
concluded. 


arka.am 

RUSSIA AND ARMENIA SIGN AGREEMENT TO EXTEND SERVICE 

LIFE OF METSAMOR NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

YEREVAN, December 22. Last Saturday Russia and Armenia
signed an intergovernmental cooperation agreement for extending the
service life of the second unit of the Armenian nuclear power plant,
Rosatom, Russia's state-run Atomic Energy Corporation said on 

Monday.

The service life of the second unit of the Armenian nuclear power
plant expires in September 2016, but the agreement provides for
extending its operation for 10 years until September 2026.

The agreement was signed by Rosatom chief Sergey Kiriyenko and
Armenian energy and natural resources minister Yervand Zakarian,
Novosti-Armenia reported citing Russian RIA Novosti news agency.

The agreement provides for a comprehensive study of the second unit
before the end of the first quarter of 2015. The study will be used
to prepare a plan of actions for 2015-2016 to extend the operation
of the power unit.

Rosatom said a license for extending the service life of the facility
is expected in 2016. This will be followed by the final stage of the
work, scheduled for completion by 2019.

The agreement provides for major repair and replacement of equipment,
preparation of maintenance documentation and staff training.

"All this measures will enable a safe and secure operation of the
plant at least until 2026," Rosatom said.

The parties agreed also that the project will be financed by a loan
that Russia will provide to Armenia.

The terms of the loan are currently being coordinated by the finance
ministries of the two countries, according to Rosatom.

The Metsamor plant located some 30 kilometers west of Yerevan, was
built in the 1970s but was closed following a devastating earthquake
in 1988 that killed some 25,000 people and devastated much of northern
Armenia.

One of the plant's two VVER 440-V230 light-water reactors was
reactivated in 1995. The Armenian government said earlier it wants
to build a new facility that is supposed to operate at twice the
capacity of the Soviet-constructed facility. Metsamor currently
generates some 40 percent of Armenia's electricity. The construction
of the new facility is estimated as much as $5 billion.-0- 


UKRAINIAN FUND INVESTS $30 MILLION IN TROUBLED

ARMENIAN CARRIER

Eturbo News
December 20, 2014 Saturday

YEREVAN -- A Ukrainian investment fund announced the purchase
of a 49 percent stake in Armenia's leading airline on Friday, pledging
to help restart soon its commercial flights that were suspended two
months ago.

Vladimir Bobylev, the chief executive of the East Prospect Fund,
pledged to invest at least $30 million in the troubled Air Armenia
carrier. Armenian news agencies quoted him as saying that it plans
to replace and expand the company's small fleet of aircraft in the
coming months.

It was not clear how much the fund, registered in the British Virgin
Islands but headquartered in Kiev, paid for the minority share. It
valued Air Armenia at $50 million on its website.

Air Armenia specialized in cargo shipments by air until Armenia's
flagship airline, Armavia, went bankrupt in April 2013, leading to
the full liberalization of the Armenian civil aviation sector. The
small carrier took over some of Armavia's flights later in 2013.

Air Armenia halted the flights to a dozen destinations in Russia and
Europe in late October as a result of a financial dispute with Russia's
national air navigation service. It accused the Rosaeronavigatsia
agency of scaring away its customers with false statements about its
outstanding debts. Aviation experts believe that the company also
struggled to compete with much larger Russian airlines.

According to Bobylev, Air Armenia is currently undergoing restructuring
and should be able to resume flights in March. "I would like our
fund to be presented not so much as a new Air Armenia shareholder
but as an investor," the Arka news agency quoted him as telling a
joint news conference with Arsen Avetisian, Air Armenia's director
and main official shareholder.

"We have understandings on $30 million [in investments] for the first
phase of operations but won't confine ourselves to that figure,"
he said.

On its website East Prospect presents itself as a fund manager
specializing in "problematic assets." Its investment portfolio,
estimated at $2.5 billion, mainly consists of mining operations
in Ukraine.

Air Armenia CEO Arsen Avetisyan said the airline will resume flights
in 2015 March. He said the airline is working now to bring back two
its planes which are in Amsterdam for an overhaul.

He said the agreement with East Prospect Fund was signed December 12
and now it owns 49 percent in Air Armenia. The remaining 51 percent
belong to the CEO.

According to Arsen Avetisyan, in 2015 the airline will operate
five aircraft to make flights to Thailand, China and some other
destinations.

In late October, Air Armenia decided to restructure its finances
and change the flights schedule after seeing an 80 percent drop in
air tickets sales. In a statement in late October Air Armenia blamed
the dramatic drop on a 'panic' among investors and customers after
Rosaeronavigatsia, a Russian federal air navigation service, said
the Armenian airline had huge outstanding debts.

Air Armenia began operating commercial passenger flights in 2013
after the bankruptcy and liquidation of Armenia's national air
carrier Armavia. 

Breaking News: Amal Clooney To Represent Armenia in European 

Court
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
Here is a surprising news item being disclosed for the first time in this
column -- Amal Ramzi Alamuddin, wife of prominent actor and human 

rights activist George Clooney, will be one of the attorneys representing 

Armenia next month at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Some readers may wonder how a woman described by Elle magazine 

as having `stunning looks, flirty dresses, tailored pants, colorful heels, 

and gorgeous hair' is involved in such a complex legal matter?

It may be astonishing to most people that Amal Alamuddin, now 

Mrs. Clooney, is much more than a pretty face! In fact, she is perfectly 

qualified for this critical assignment.

Mrs. Clooney is a highly regarded attorney specializing in international

law, criminal law, human rights, and extradition. She has been involved in
several major lawsuits such as return of the Elgin Marbles from Great
Britain to Greece, and defending Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and former
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She has also worked with the
Prosecutor of the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and the International
Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.

Amal was born in Lebanon to a Druze father and Sunni Muslim mother in 1978.
At the age of two, her family moved to the United Kingdom. She received her
law degree from New York University School of Law and clerked at the
International Court of Justice (World Court). After returning to London in
2010, she became a barrister at the Doughty Street Chambers. She served as
advisor to Kofi Annan, UN Special Envoy on Syria, and as Counsel to the
2013 UN Drone Inquiry team. She is fluent in English, French and Arabic.
Her marriage to George Clooney in September 2014 made worldwide headlines.

With such impeccable credentials, Mrs. Clooney will be a great asset to
Armenia's legal team in Strasbourg, in the appeal of Perincek vs.
Switzerland before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights
on January 28.

The case involves the conviction by Swiss courts of Dogu Perincek, a minor
Turkish political party leader, who had travelled to Switzerland in 2005
with the explicit intent of denying the truth of the Armenian Genocide. In
2008, Perincek appealed the Swiss ruling to the European Court of Human
Rights. A majority of five out of seven ECHR judges ruled on Dec. 17, 2013
that Switzerland had violated Perincek's right to free expression.

This ruling was an unfair and unacceptable double standard, as the court
considered denial of the Jewish Holocaust a crime, but Armenian Genocide
denial an infringement on free speech. The five judges who ruled against
Switzerland made countless judgmental and factual errors, misrepresenting
Perincek's allegations, misinterpreting Switzerland's laws and court
rulings, lacking basic knowledge of the Armenian Genocide, and repeatedly
contradicting themselves. Two of the seven judges disagreed with the
majority's ruling and submitted a comprehensive 19-page report on the
Armenian Genocide, siding with the Swiss court.

On March 17, 2014, Switzerland decided to appeal the ruling to ECHR's
17-judge Grand Chamber, to defend the integrity of its laws and the
country's legal system. Specifically, the Swiss government challenged the
court's decision on three grounds:

1) ECHR had never before dealt with the juridical qualification of genocide
and the scope of freedom of expression;
2) The undue restriction of `the margin of appreciation' available to
Switzerland under ECHR's jurisprudence;
3) The establishment of `artificial distinctions' -- in the absence of an
international verdict, ECHR should have considered the Turkish Court's 1919
guilty verdicts against the masterminds of the Armenian Genocide as
evidence related to World Court's jurisprudence.

Last year, when ECHR's lower court was considering Perincek's case, Armenia
did not participate. Turkey, however, intervened by submitting extensive
documentation questioning the veracity of the Armenian Genocide. This time
around Armenia will take part with a strong legal team, which includes
Geoffrey Robertson QC, a preeminent international lawyer and author of the
remarkable book, `An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Now Remembers the
Armenians?' Robertson will be joined in court by his associate Amal
Clooney, and two Armenian government representatives Gevorg Kostanyan and
Emil Babayan.

It is imperative that on the eve of the Armenian Genocide's Centennial in
2015, ECHR's Grand Chamber reverse the lower court's flawed ruling,
restoring the integrity of Swiss laws and preventing Turkey and Perincek
from exporting their genocide denialism to Europe and beyond!