 At this time, however, numerous Circassians around the Kuban and even Kalmyks had already been expelled to Ottoman lands as the Russians had swept them up in their systematic deportation of Nogais, with British newspapers reporting that Russian forces were forcing a choice of either the Ottoman Empire or Siberia on resident Nogai and Circassian populations, with 18,000-20,000 Circassians and Nogais ended up packed densely together outside the cities of Istanbul and Üsküdar.With a gathering sense of emergency, on 25 June 1861, leaders of all the Circassian tribes and the Ubykhs gathered in a khase in Sochi to jointly petition the Western powers for help.Ottoman and British delegations both promised recognition of an independent Circassia, as well as recognition from Paris, if they unified into a coherent state, and in response the Circassian tribes formed a national parliament in Sochi, but Russian General Kolyobakin quickly overran Sochi and destroyed it, while there was no action to stop this by any major power's government.