Stepanakert

Stepanakert, known in Azerbaijani as Khankendi, is a city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, set in a valley on the eastern slopes of the Karabakh mountain range on the left bank of the Karkar River. It served during the Soviet period as capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, established in 1923, and later as the de facto capital of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh, reaching a population of about 75,000 by 2021, almost entirely Armenian. Following Azerbaijan's military offensive in 2023 the Armenian population left the city, and by 2024 an Azerbaijani population of around 8,000 had begun to settle there, growing to about 24,000 by 2026 as Karabakh University reopened and Azerbaijan rebuilt much of the city center.