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Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Armenian opposition leaders summoned to National Security Service ahead of rally

The opposition rally is being held on Freedom Square in central Yerevan, with some 2,000 people taking part

YEREVAN, November 16. /TASS/. Leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan and leard of the Motherland Party Artur Vanetsyan were summoned to the National Security Service ahead of Monday’s rally in central Yerevan demanding resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Gegam Manukyan of the opposition party Dashnaktsutyun told the raly.

"Tsarukyan, Vanetsyan and others have been summoned to the National Security Service so that they could not take part in the rally. Pashinyan, you must step down," he said.

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Armenian premier says he bears main responsibility for Karabakh situation

The opposition rally is being held on Freedom Square in central Yerevan, with some 2,000 people taking part. The participants demand Pashinyan’s resignation claiming that the trilateral statement on the cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh he signed is a capitulation.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July.

On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. Under the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides are to maintain the positions that they held and Russian peacekeepers are to be deployed to the region.

Later, Pashinyan said that following the fall of Shusha further fighting was pointless for the Armenian side as it would be unable to reverse the situation.

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Armenia Nagorno-Karabakh

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