Stepanakert

The city wis unner the haudin an the caipital city o the brakaff Republic o Artsakh afore the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in the airt. The city is locate in a valley on the eastren slopes o the Karabakh muntain reeng, on the left baunk o the Qarqarçay (Karkar) river.

Foondin an Soviet era

 

Accordin tae medieval Armenian soorces, the dounset wis first mentioned as Vararakn (Վարարակն, meanin "rapid spring" in Armenian) which it remained till it wis renamed Khankendi in 1847. Azerbaijani soorces generally say that the dounset wis foondit in the late aichteent century bi a Karabakh khan, an wis thus cawed Khankendi (Turkic for "the khan's veelage").

In 1923 Khankendi wis renamed Stepanakert bi the Soviet govrenment tae honor Stepan Shahumyan, leader o the 26 Baku Commissars, an, efter the Shusha pogrom haed resultit in major destruction at Shusha, the umwhile regional caipital, Stepanakert wis made the caipital o the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. In time, Stepanakert grew tae acome the region's maist important ceety (a status it received in 1940). Its population rose frae 10,459 in 1939 tae 33,000 in 1978.

In 1926, Soviet authorities adoptit a new ceety layoot designed bi the prominent Armenian airchitect, Alexander Tamanian; twa addeetional designs for expansion wur approved later on in the 1930s an 1960s, baith o which retained Tamanian's initial plan. Several schools an twa "polyclinics" wur established, an an Armenian Dramatic Theatre wis foondit in 1932 an named efter Maxim Gorky. Stepanakert served as Nagorno-Karabakh's main economic hub, an bi the mid-1980s thare wur nineteen production facilities in the ceety.