The Parliament of Uzbekistan has decided to preserve the sovereignty of Karakalpakstan in the draft amendments to the country’s constitution. As a result of voting in the Parliament, articles 70, 71, 72, 74 and 75 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan remained unchanged, and it was considered “appropriate to maintain the current rules”.

In the aforementioned region, riots have recently taken place due to proposed amendments to the country’s constitution.

The Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, with a population of about 2 million people, is located in the north-west of Uzbekistan and is the largest region of the country, occupies about 40% of its territory. In the nineties of the last century, an agreement was signed on its entry into Uzbekistan as a sovereign republic with the right to exit on the basis of a referendum and two languages ​​- Karakalpak and Uzbek.

Last Friday, the Uzbek Interior Ministry reported that security forces broke up an unsanctioned demonstration in the city of Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan, and that security guards had been installed there.