Talk:Stepanakert

Article is conflating the Armenian-era with the current situation

The article mixes information from both the Armenian-administered period and the present day, but much of the Armenian-era content is now outdated. Sections such as Culture and economy, Politics, and even Transport refer almost entirely to the period when the city was under Armenian control. This material should be moved to Stepanakert in the Republic of Artsakh (or another appropriate historical article).

If there is no reliable information available for the current situation under Azerbaijani administration, then those sections should either be rewritten accordingly or removed altogether. The article should reflect the present reality rather than preserve outdated content from the previous era. Yakamoz51 (talk) 08:54, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

See the most recent page move request. As we have to respect the results, We will be abiding by consensus, and this will remain unsolved until further notice. Freedoxm (talk · contribs) 10:30, 31 December 2025 (UTC)

My request is not about moving the article. Most of the content is outdated. Almost every section of the article is written in "past tense". i.e., "Stepanakert was served by a number of regular minibus lines. Old Soviet-era buses have been replaced with new modern buses. ", then what?? These are obsolote.Yakamoz51 (talk) 08:03, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

I think most relevant information is already at the subarticle, so if we have more recent sources that would be helpful for updating the article. CMD (talk) 08:18, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

I agree with @Yakamoz51. This article should be updated, along with its name which has been officially known as Xankendi for 3 years. Lumberrr (talk) 13:14, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

Requested move 19 January 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Per consensus, the current title is the common name. However, it was indicated that there is a slight uptick in the usage of the proposed title in recent news, but not enough for certain change in the common name. I urge any editors seeking to rename the article similarly in the future to analyse publications from now till then which is more commonly used first. – robertsky (talk) 02:45, 28 January 2026 (UTC)

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• Stepanakert → KhankendiKhankendi
• Stepanakert in the Republic of Artsakh → Stepanakert

– Per WP:MODERNPLACENAME. Two years on after the fall of Artsakh and exodus of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, keeping this article as "Stepanakert", and generally in a state of not being updated to reflect the fact Artsakh no longer exists, is getting rather ridiculous - I'd say they're akin to insisting on Stettin and Breslau in 1947. I think it's better to make the move now in a way that respects NPOV than to keep this article as Stepanakert until pro-Azerbaijani editors force the move in a completely biased way. Glide08 (talk) 17:45, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

• Fixed malformed move request. Rotideypoc41352 (talk · contribs) 18:48, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  Thank you. Glide08 (talk) 19:07, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

• Support Per WP:MODERNPLACENAME, it does not make sense to call a place by a former name unless we are discussing creating a separate article for the former name. Gjb0zWxOb (talk) 19:40, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  Which already exists, just under the clunky name Stepanakert in the Republic of Artsakh. Glide08 (talk) 20:10, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  Might be worth opening a discussion over there in conjunction with this one so that it can be all done at the same time. That one should probably be renamed under WP:CONCISE. Gjb0zWxOb (talk) 20:13, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  This discussion is for both articles at once. Glide08 (talk) 20:14, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  Perfect, well consider WP:CONCISE to be part of my rationale for the other article haha. Gjb0zWxOb (talk) 20:17, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  No it should not, the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC for "Stephanakert" is this page. CMD (talk) 22:54, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  There's distinct articles for Königsberg (as it was before its population was emptied out by the Soviet Union) and Kaliningrad (as it is after). The situation is analogous. Glide08 (talk) 23:34, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

  The situations are hundreds of years apart. Searching Stephanakert and you still see stories about the present. CMD (talk) 03:39, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

• Strongly Oppose per WP:COMMONNAME. Stepanakert continues to remain the most widely used English name for the city in reliable sources despite all the aforementioned events. No major changes have occurred within the past 8 months since the previous 5 move requests that would suggest a change in naming convention among reliable sources for the city. Sources such as OC Media continue to refer to it primarily as Stepanakert, see this article published recently. Even Russian state-owned media TASS continues to favor the name Stepanakert. This proves that this is a modern name that is used to refer to the city, not solely a historical one. I don’t see third party reliable English-language sources using Khankendi as the common name, it’s usually specified this is the Azerbaijani-language name. Article titles are based on how the city is most commonly known, for example the city of Urfa is called by its old name because that is the most common in sources even though it is officially called Şanlıurfa. TagaworShah (talk) 02:33, 20 January 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose for now. We need actual evidence that RS have mostly switched to "Khankendi". In the last RM there was evidence to the contrary, so it does not look like much has changed since then. Mellk (talk) 17:43, 20 January 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose Stepanakert is still the WP:COMMONNAME. KhndzorUtogh (talk) 11:50, 21 January 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose My check of what English-language sources are using, independent from other editors, suggests to me that while usage of Khankendi is rising a bit, Stepanakert is still slightly more widely used. As distasteful as it would feel -- I had a Polish grandfather -- if English sources in 1947 were still using Stettin and Breslau, a theoretical Wikipedia at the time should have still used those as the article names. CoffeeCrumbs (talk) 09:45, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
• Support. Per WP:MODERNPLACENAME. I agree that it does not make much sense to refer to a place by its former name, which has been unofficial since 1991 and has had no de facto application since 2023. Most recent news reports use the double name Khankendi/Stepanakert, with Khankendi often coming first. The TASS report mentioned above uses both Khankendi and Stepanakert, with Khankendi used in the present context and Stepanakert in the historical one. Another example, recent Euronews reports mention Khankendi, not Stepanakert. Grandmaster 09:48, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

  Using Khankendi for the present-day and Stepanakert for the historical context is also more or less the results of WP:GDANSK, so there's precedent for that. Glide08 (talk) 11:13, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

  Yes, exactly. Grandmaster 14:01, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

• Support In the NOW Corpus, there are 7 mentions of Stepanakert since January 2025 and 87 for Khankendi. BBC News Russian also uses Khankendi , the same applies to the Associated Press, the Russian version of Deutsche Welle, the British Independent, Al Jazeera, Reuters. Kelob2678 (talk) 10:17, 22 January 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose Stepanakert remains the most common name for this city. "Stepanakert" is not only more common in general, but is also the term used by multiple reputable publishers and peer-reviewed academic journals even in recent times.

2025 Articles

• Reuters
• Council of Foreign Relations
• Canadian Military journal
• Caucasian Knot

2025 Academic Journal articles

• Shifts in Azerbaijani discourse: Heydar Aliyev’s rhetorical transformation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict negotiation process

2025 Books

• Conflict, Space and Transnationalism An Ethnography of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War
• Who Owns War?: The State and the Role of Non-State (Armed) Actors in Modern Warfare

There are also multiple sources that specifically qualify the term "Khakendi" stating that it's only known as is by Azerbaijanis...(ie., not by the rest of the world).

• Jerusalem Post: "Stepanakert city, known as Khankendi by Azerbaijan"
• Caucasus Edition: "Stepanakert is Khankendi for Azerbaijanis"

Books

• The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe at 50: . "Stepanakert (called Khankendi by Azerbaijanis)"

Moreover, the city was renamed by Azerbaijan from Stepanakert to Khakendi only during the Karabakh movement at a point in which Azerbaijan did not have effective control over the city. Vanezi (talk) 12:17, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

• A more recent Reuters report mentions Khankendi, not Stepanakert. Another report by the Caucasian Knot from a few days later gives preference to Khankendi: A recent UN General Assembly resolution also mentions Khankendi: Grandmaster 14:17, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

• Oppose per WP:COMMONNAME, Stepanakert remains the most commonly used English name for the city in reliable sources. Claims that this represents a recent "modern" renaming are misleading: from Azerbaijan's administrative perspective, neither Stepanakert nor the Nagorno-Karabakh region have been official since the early 1990s, yet both have continued to be used in RS. Barseghian Lilia (talk) 14:06, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

  Because until 2023, the city was under the control of Artsakh, which did use Stepanakert as its official name. Glide08 (talk) 16:06, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Removal of present-day images

@AntonSamuel, could you please explain to me why you find images of the present-day Stepanakert controversial? Why do you keep removing them? Please give a proper explanation; otherwise, I really don't see any reason for you to revert my edits. Governor Sheng (talk) 14:02, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

You added several images published by the Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, some of which depict elements that have been built on recently demolished Armenian historical and cultural buildings/areas in the past 3 years, this context was not provided - and I would say that their weight is undue per WP:NPOV considering the history of the city. AntonSamuel (talk) 12:18, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

I wouldn't say so. They portray the present-day image of the city. If the article was about the history of Stepanakert, then yes, I could understand your point. However, we're talking about the current subjects, such as - economy, sports etc. Non of that is adequately represented by the past images. Governor Sheng (talk) 06:03, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

This is not a tourism site. Images serve to provide illustrative aid to the body of text as MOS:IMAGERELEVANCE states. In this case, the images reflect a city that was entirely ethnically cleansed. KhndzorUtogh (talk) 09:38, 13 May 2026 (UTC)