It's Amal versus the genocide-deniers

Mrs Clooney will advise the Eurasian country as they challenge the appeal of Doğu Perinçek, who was found guilty by a Swiss court in 2008.

His appeal is now being challenged by Armenia, which argues that denying the 1915 genocide is a crime on par with Holocaust denial.

The 36-year-old human rights lawyer and her head of chambers, Geoffrey Robertson QC, arrived at the appeal hearing before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg yesterday.

Doğu Perinçek the leader of the Turkish Workers Party was fined by a Swiss court in 2008 after calling the 1915 genocide an ‘international lie’, during a visit to Switzerland.

Mr Perinçek later appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that Switzerland had violated his right to free expression in December 2013.

Armenia also says that the European Court of Human Rights’s ruling on Mr Perinçek’s 2013 appeal contains legal and factual errors.

This April marks the 100th anniversary of the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. 

The killings in 1915 are regarded by many historians as the first genocide of the 20th century, and are said to have inspired Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Turkey rejects the term ‘genocide,’ says the death figure is inflated and that people died on both sides as the Ottoman Empire collapsed amid World War I.

Mrs Clooney is a barrister with the London chamber, specialising in human rights, international law, and extradition.

She speaks three languages fluently - English, French and Arabic - and has represented Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Last year, the accomplished lawyer advised Greece on how to get Britain to return the disputed Elgin Marbles.

Mrs Clooney was part of a high profile legal team from London advising the Greek government on possible action in the international court to force the British Museum to hand over the marbles.

Mrs Clooney’s international profile was raised last year when she married American actor George Clooney in a star-studded ceremony in Italy.

(dailymail.co.uk)