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“Everyone here volunteered during the war. Even men in their sixties,” said Vardan Hayrapetyan, sitting in the spartan office of his hotel in southern Armenia, near the Iranian border. The hotel mostly caters to Iranian truck drivers who shuttle gas and other goods along the main road through Syunik province, a relatively narrow strip of land that is bordered by Azerbaijani territory on two sides, east and west.
“Most of the men went to defend the border with Nakhichevan and the south of Karabakh,” Vardan added. “That’s where the battles were hardest.”
Nakhichevan is Azerbaijan’s exclave to the west of Armenia, while Nagorno-Karabakh is disputed territory to the east. For 44 days last autumn, Armenia fought a tooth-and-nail defence against Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, home to thousands of Armenians (and before a cataclysmic war in the 1990s, to many Azerbaijanis as well). On 27 September, Azerbaijani forces launched a full-scale mil
Germany demands Russia release Alexei Navalny
Germany has called for the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after Russian prosecutors agreed with prison officials that the Kremlin critic breached the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence.
Alexei Navalny, the jailed Kremlin critic, could be handed a longer prison term
Germany on Monday condemned violence against demonstrators in Russia after riot police broke up protests in support of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
A government spokeswoman said at a regular news conference the protesters and Navalny must be released.
The statement comes as Russian prosecutors backed a request to imprison the opposition leader.
Navalny's wife, Yulia, was taken into custody for a second weekend in a row for taking part in the demonstrations. Police have detained over 5,100 people and deployed unprecedented security measures to curb the protests.
Russia: More than 5,000 arrested as Alexei Navalny supporters defy protest ban, says monitor
Navalny s wife, Yulia, was taken into custody for a second weekend in a row for taking part in the demonstrations. Police have detained over 5,100 people and deployed unprecedented security measures to curb the protests.
Police rounded up hundreds of people in Moscow
Thousands of people turned out in cities across Russia on Sunday to demand the release of detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Police have, so far, detained more than 5,100 demonstrators, according to monitoring group OVD-Info.
More than 1,600 were rounded up in Moscow alone including Navalny s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, the Kremlin critic s allies said on social media. She was also detained during last weekend s protests.