Epress.am News from Armenia
Armavia Armenian air carrier and local daily Chorrord Inqnishkhanutyun (“Fourth Self-Authority”) today settled their dispute at the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork Marash Administrative Districts of Yerevan. Recall, Armavia had filed a lawsuit against the paper, asking 2 million drams (approx. $5,300 USD) in damages for harming its business reputation.
The article in question, “Armenian Air Carrier Supplied Arms to Libya?” published by Chorrord Inqnishkhanutyun, was in fact reprinted from Epress.am. The article noted that Commander of the National Army and Chief of General Staff of Moldova’s Armed Forces, Brigadier General Iurie Dominic said that a IL-76 aircraft that arrived in Moldova from Libya, with the aim of picking up a regular shipment of arms (and it is presumed will go back), belongs to “an Armenian civil air carrier.” [Note, the statement was originally published by the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station as well as Interfax news agency.]
Epress.am at the time sought comment from Armenian Department of Civil Aviation press secretary Nelly Cherchinyan, who said that “only [Armenian national air carrier] Armavia can comment on this matter.” However, Armavia’s press office did not respond to calls at the time.
Later, Armavia press secretary Nana Avetisova informed Epress.am that Armavia has never had a IL-76 aircraft and only transports passengers and not cargo.
Chorrord Inqnishkhanutyun reporter Gohar Veziryan informed Epress.am that Armavia’s representatives in court yesterday suggested the paper publish a retraction saying Armavia didn’t ship any arms.
“We will publish this [retraction] now for a third time and this will change absolutely nothing in the lives of the editorial staff, the Armenian public or [Armavia owner] Mika Baghdasarov,” she said, adding they today signed the agreement to settle, which the court will read in the form of a ruling on Dec. 28. “According to the ruling, we have to publish a retraction up to 30 days after the ruling is adopted.”
Veziryan mentioned that they’ll publish the retraction in January.