At the same time, the parliament of the self-proclaimed republic signed a statement on the inadmissibility of the transfer of the region under the control of Azerbaijan.

The independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was declared by the ethnic Armenians of the former Soviet Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region in the early 1990s.

No country in the world has recognized it.

After the hostilities of 2020, part of the region came under the control of Azerbaijan.

According to the head of the government of the self-proclaimed NKR

, about 40 thousand residents, or almost a third of the entire population of the self-proclaimed republic, came to the rally.

According to other estimates, the rally gathered up to 70,000 people, which is already half of all residents of the region.

The rally participants carried, among others, placards with the demand to stop "aggression against Azerbaijan" and Russian tricolors.

An extraordinary meeting of the National Assembly of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was broadcast on the central square, where people were kneeling.

According to its results, the deputies adopted a statement on the inadmissibility of attempts to transfer the region under the control of Baku and appealed to the authorities of Armenia and Russia.

"Artsakh (

) has never been and will never be a part of independent Azerbaijan.

This idea should be the basis of the settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict," the statement reads.

It also contains requirements for Armenia to "protect the common interests of the two Armenian republics".

In addition, the document contains a call to Russia "to maintain its commitment to guaranteeing the security of the people of Artsakh."

Deputies suggested that Russia "introduce additional political and military mechanisms" taking into account the danger that threatens the existence of the republic.

The meeting and the signing of the document took place on the eve of the talks between the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia, which are taking place in Sochi today.

• The international community recognizes Nagorno-Karabakh as a sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, but since the early 1990s, Baku has not controlled most of the region.

• As a result of the fighting, in the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan and Armenia, with the mediation of Russia, signed an agreement on the cessation of hostilities.

  According to the agreement, which provoked opposition protests in Yerevan, Baku regained a significant part of the Nagorno-Karabakh territories occupied by Armenian forces in the early 1990s.

• Russian peacekeeping forces are stationed in the region.

• The tension in the region persists to this day.

  On the night of September 12-13, battles took place on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, as a result of which several hundred soldiers from both sides were killed.

  Baku and Yerevan accused each other of aggression and provocations.

  In mid-October, with the mediation of the European Union, the parties agreed on the work of the European monitoring mission along the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

• The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan,

  Nikol Pashinyan

  and

  Ilham Aliyev

  , announced plans to conclude a peace agreement by the end of 2022.