| Stepanakert Ստեփանակերտ Khankendi (Xankəndi) |
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| — City — | |
| Stepanakert | |
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Stepanakert
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country Unrecognized country |
Azerbaijan (de jure) Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (de facto) |
| Province | Stepanakert (City) |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Souren Grigoryan |
| Elevation | 813 m (2,670 ft) |
| Population (2010)[1] | |
| • Total | 53,000 |
Stepanakert (Armenian: Ստեփանակերտ; called Khankendi (Azerbaijani: Xankəndi) by Azerbaijan) is the largest city and capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a de facto independent republic, though is internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan.[2] The city population comprises about 53,000 ethnic Armenians.
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According to medieval Armenian sources, the settlement was first mentioned as Vararakn (Վարարակն, meaning "rapid spring" in Armenian) which it remained until it was renamed Khankendi in 1847.[3][4] Azerbaijani sources generally say that the settlement was founded in the late eighteenth century by a Karabakh khan, and was thus called Khankendi (Turkic for "the khan's village").
In 1923 Khankendi was renamed Stepanakert by the Soviet government to honor Stepan Shahumyan, leader of the 26 Baku Commissars, and, after the Shusha pogrom had resulted in major destruction at Shusha, the former regional capital, Stepanakert was made the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. In time, Stepanakert grew to become the region's most important city (a status it received in 1940). Its population rose from 10,459 in 1939 to 33,000 in 1978.[4]
In 1926, municipal authorities adopted a new city layout designed by the prominent Armenian architect, Alexander Tamanian; two additional designs for expansion were approved later on in the 1930s and 1960s, both of which retained Tamanian's initial plan.[3] Several schools and two "polyclinics" were established, and an Armenian Dramatic Theatre was founded in 1932 and named after Maxim Gorky.[4] Stepanakert served as Nagorno-Karabakh's main economic hub, and by the mid-1980s there were nineteen production facilities in the city.[3]
The political and economic reforms that General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had initiated in 1985 saw a marked decentralization of Soviet authority. Armenians, in both Armenia proper and Nagorno-Karabakh, viewed Gorbachev's reform program as an opportunity to unite the two together. On February 20, 1988, tens of thousands of Armenians gathered to demonstrate in Stepanakert's Lenin (now Renaissance) Square to demand that the region be joined to Armenia. On the same day, the Supreme Soviet of Nagorno-Karabakh voted to join the Armenian SSR, a move staunchly opposed by the Soviet Azerbaijani authorities.[5] Relations between Stepankert's Armenians and Azerbaijanis, who supported the Azerbaijani government's position, deteriorated in the following years and as a result, nearly all of the Azerbaijanis fled the city.
After Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Stepanakert was renamed by the Azerbaijani government back to Khankendi as part of a campaign against Communism and of Azerification. Fighting broke out over control of Nagorno-Karabakh which eventually resulted in Armenian control of the region and a connecting corridor to Armenia to the west. Prior to the conflict, Stepanakert was the largest city of the (NKAO), with a population of 70,000 out of a total 189,000 (Armenians at the time comprised 75% of the region's total population).[6] By early 1992, that figure had dropped to 50,000.[7]
During the war, the city suffered immense damage from Azeri bombardment, especially in early 1992 when the Azeris used the town of Shusha as an artillery firebase to fire GRAD missiles against it. So destructive was the damage caused by the incessant bombardment, that a journalist for Time noted in an April 1992 report that "scarcely a single building [had] escaped damage in Stepanakert."[7] The Azerbaijani military staged several ground attacks against the city, which were, however, successfully repulsed. It was not until May 9, 1992, with the capture of Shusha, that the ground bombardment ceased. The city, nevertheless, continued to suffer aerial bombardment for the remainder of the war.
There has been an unofficial cease-fire observed since 1994.
Prior to the war, Stepanakert's economy revolved mostly around food processing, silk weaving, and winemaking.[3] The city's economy was greatly damaged during the war, but in recent years, largely due to the investments of the Armenian diaspora, economic activity and tourism especially, has picked up in Stepanakert and the rest of the NKR. Several hotels have been opened up by diasporan Armenians, including the Nairi Hotel, which was opened by Jack Abolakian, an Armenian Australian, in 2000.[8]
During the Soviet era, there were no traditional churches in Stepanakert, although most of the population of the city were members of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The believers attended the church that is in the building of the House of Culture. There is also one ancient church in the city that was built in the eighteenth century, but it is not operating. On September 15, 2006 the foundation stones of St. James Church in Stepanakert were laid. The church's benefactor, Vache Yepremian, from Los Angeles, sponsored the construction of the church and on May 9, 2007, the church of St. James was consecrated in honor of the fifteenth anniversary of the capture of Shusha.[9]
There exist five schools for higher educational learning in Stepanakert: Artsakh State University and four private universities. Artsakh State was originally established in 1969 as a branch of the Baku Pedagogical Institute. In 1973, it was renamed Stepanakert Pedagogical Institute and following the end of the war, in 1995, it received its current name. The university offers courses spread across seven departments and has an attendance level of 4,500.[10]
In September 2010, representatives from the Los Angeles-based Armenia Fund and officials from Armenia and the NKR presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the newly opened School № 11. The school expects to see an attendance level of 600 students and consists of three buildings, a playground, a gym and other basic amenities such as a computer lab and first aid clinic. Its construction was funded by money gathered by the Armenian Diaspora.[11]
Stepanakert is also the home of the Artsakh State Museum.
The temperature in Stepanakert typically varies depending on season. In the month of January, the average temperature drops to 0.5 °C. In August, it averages around 22.6 °C. The level of the city's annual precipitation is relatively low, amounting to about 560mm.[3]
According to national composition, Armenians form 99.6% of Stepanakert's population (49,840), whereas other ethnic groups comprise the remaining 0.4% (160).
On September 25, 2005, the city of Montebello, California inaugurated Stepanakert as a sister city. This prompted a complaint by the ambassador of Azerbaijan to the United States, Hafiz Pashayev, who sent a letter to California leaders, stating that the decision jeopardized peace talks between his country and Armenia.[12] The letter was sent to then-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who deferred the letter to Montebello mayor Bill Molinari since it concerned a local, not a state, issue. Molinari responded to Pashayev that the city would go ahead with its plans to inaugurate Stepanakert under the sister city program.[12]
Stepanakert's relationship with Montebello is concentrated in revitalizing the capital's economic infrastructure and to build cultural and educational ties as well as enhance trade and health care between the two cities. Azerbaijan has charged this as a contradictory foreign policy of the United States in supporting the NKR government and Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan.[13]