History

Homeopathy as a therapy became known in Armenia in the 90s of the 20th century, due to charity activities of a Swiss Armenian Haritun Kurtcuoglu. In the autumn 1993 he invited two experts of the traditional medicine to Armenia - homeopath Sabine Zimmermann and reflex therapist Hanne Marquardt. This invitation was one of the first steps within the aid project to Armenia, the realization of which Haritun has started since 1992.

The lectures were organized at the Erebouni Hospital, where Sabina acquainted a group of doctors with homeopathy, and in the following years she regularly kept on coming there to teach. At first this part of the project was supported by the Swiss society "Komed", founded by Haritun, but soon Sabina ran the business by herself.

To realize his initial goal of broad dissemination of homeopathy (as an alternative and accessible-for-all treatment) and accessibility of its exploration for all interested, together with his family and friends, Haritun founded the "Noraluys" society in Switzerland, and selected a new group of listeners in Yerevan, consisted not only of professional physicians. In the summer of 1995, this group attended a two-month basic course of homeopathy at the Arabkir Children's Republican Hospital.
This course was given by the Swiss homeopaths who had come to Armenia, a country that has gone through the devastating earthquake, the war, and the collapse of the state regime, resulted by an absolute financial crash.
Among the first enthusiast lecturers were the unforgettable Nelly Hans with her thriving energy, a talented and adored by students Mario Ghenzi, Rosmarie Scher, Irene Weiss and Erika Frey. Later on, Elke Satsang Sautter and Christine Baldauf from Germany continued their work and became very dear for Armenian homeopaths; also Lucia Fromknecht, a brilliant homeopath Dr. Barbara Fischer, and a virtuoso for small remedies Felix Morgentahler from Switzerland.

In 1996, the Armenian homeopaths officially registered the first homeopathic society in Armenia, named "The Association of Homeopaths of Armenia" (AHA), later renamed into "The Association of Armenian Homeopaths" (AAH). The Swiss societies "Komed" and "Noraluys" were supporting Armenian homeopaths as much as possible by supplying special homeopathic literature and preparations, organizing homeopathic lectures and giving possibilities to increase their professional qualification. A homeopathic school for beginners was established under the Association, which worked up to 2004, and had about a hundred students that time. The basic course of homeopathy was given by local homeopaths. The homeopaths from Germany and Switzerland used to come twice a year to Armenia to raise the skills of local specialists, to give lectures and seminars and share their experience. For fruitful operation, AHA has been granted an office in Yerevan by the members of "Noraluys".

The same 1996, at the Yerevan Institute of Traditional Medicine a homeopathic course was organized by "Komed", which was included into the curriculum of that Institute. And in 1999 at the National Institute of Health of Armenia physicians have been taught homeopathy as a treatment method to use in their practice.
By that time, thanks to efforts of "Komed" and Nelly Hans, two AHA doctors were enrolled to the Swiss Homeopathic Institute (SHI) of Dr. Mohinder Singh Jus, a distinguished homeopath in Europe, where they studied for two years.

In 2001 the homeopaths of the Erebouni Hospital officially registered a second homeopathic society in Armenia, named "The Armenian Association of International Homeopaths" (AAIH).
All these years both societies pursued the aim of achieving the official recognition of homeopathy in Armenia. The personal meeting between Haritun and the president of Armenia in Switzerland played the significant part in solving this matter. In November 2001, the Ministry of Health of Armenia officially recognized homeopathy as medical profession.
At the same time with support of "Noraluys" the AHA organized its first conference - "Homeopathy - an independent therapy".

After the disintegration of the USSR, the free health care system also collapsed. The poorest citizens of the country, unable to afford the payable medical service, were in the most grievous situation. Having united, the homeopaths who were providing the needy residents in the villages with medical help, founded a homeopathic society "Komed-Yerevan", which was officially registered in 2002 as the Organization of Classical Homeopathy (OCH). The same year OCH became a member of the European Council for Classical Homeopathy (ECCH).
At the end of 2002, the first charity homeopathic centre was opened in the village of Privolnoye (north of Armenia) in memory of Nelly Hans, who has been there several times and local population had very warm feelings towards her.

Since 2003 an optional homeopathic lecture course is given at the Yerevan State Medical Institute.
In September 2003, in collaboration with the "Noraluys" society, Tatyana Popova, a famous homeopath from Ukraine, held a seminar in Yerevan for the Armenian homeopaths.
At the beginning of October 2003, a Swiss homeopath Dr. Barbara Fischer, one of the authors of the "Complete Repertory", held her second seminar in Yerevan, noting the high level of the listeners' knowledge.
In October 2003, the first International Congress of Homeopathy organized by AAIH took place in Yerevan.
In November 2003 a joint Armenian-Swiss homeopathic academy IAH ("International Academy of Homeopathy") was established in Yerevan at the Scientific-Research Institute of Balneology and Physical Therapy. A two-year training course was suggested to professional medical workers, whilst an extended one, with the basic knowledge of medicine, was intended for those without medical education. The Swiss side was represented by SHI school of Dr. Mohinder Singh Jus. The "Noraluys" society was supporting Academy financially.

The Academy was operating for two years and had 23 graduates. During these two years many lecturers from SHI came to Academy to give lectures. Among them were Werner Zbinden, Stefan Bauer, and Martin Perren. Dr. Mohinder Singh Jus himself appeared two times, together with Dr. Martine Cachin Jus. In 2006 the board of directors of the Institute, being unsatisfied with the insolvent financing of the Academy, initiated the cancellation of the contract with SHI.

In April 2005, the year of 250th anniversary of the founder of Homeopathy Samuel Hahnemann, within the frames of the World Homeopathy Awareness Week (WHAW), held by the world homeopathic community, OCH has organized its first conference.
In November of the same year, the Russian translation of the book by Dr. Mohinder Singh Jus, "Homeopathy, the Journey of the Disease", was published in Yerevan (translated into Russian by a doctor-homeopath Anna Avagyan).

In April 2006, the second conference of OCH took place, the main theme of which was "The Health Care of Children". By the time of the conference the ECCH booklet "Homeopathy - the Preferable Option for the Health Care of Children in Europe" was translated into Armenian, published and distributed.