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153-493: Stepanakert ( Armenian : Ստեփանակերտ , romanized :  Stepʻanakert , Eastern pronunciation: [stɛpʰɑnɑˈkɛɾt] ) or Khankendi ( Azerbaijani : Xankəndi , pronounced [xɑncænˈdi] ) is a city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan . The city was under the control and the capital city of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh prior to the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in

306-725: A beglarbegi (governor-general), Karabakh and Erivan . The Iranian-ruled part of Armenia was known as Iranian Armenia or Eastern Armenia , whilst the Ottoman part was known as Ottoman Armenia or Western Armenia . The lowlands of Karabakh were dominated by nomadic Turkic tribes, who moved to the hillsides in search of suitable pastures throughout the summer. The highlands of Karabakh were dominated by Armenian meliks (princes), who had established five melikdoms ( Dizak , Gulistan, Jraberd, Khachen and Varanda ) that ruled in Karabakh. These Armenian-ruled principalities, which upheld

459-427: A toponym , as the word is missing from Turkic texts that date back to the fortress' construction. The panahabadi seemingly only had its own name as a result of these coins' weights being different from earlier Iranian abbasi as well as from the rial and rupia later weight systems. Another coin type, called the sahibqirani , was first minted 1800/01 in the name of Fath-Ali Shah. A unique variant of

612-492: A cemetery. That same year, the village was renamed from Vararakn to Khankendi. By 1886, there were 52 houses in the settlement. The population of Khankendi consisted of retired soldiers and their descendants, who belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church . The population was engaged in agriculture, as well as various crafts, carriage, the renting of apartments (mainly to military personnel), and so on. After 1898,

765-600: A conflict with Haji Chalabi Khan , the khan of the Shaki Khanate . He occasionally attempted to form an alliance with Georgia in an effort to restrain Haji Chalabi Khan's goals, but his efforts were ineffective. In 1752, Panah Ali Khan relocated everyone from Bayat to the newly constructed Shah-Bulaghi stronghold, which brought him within close proximity of the highlands ruled by the five Armenian melikdoms. Panah Ali Khan made an alliance with Shahnazar II ,

918-520: A consistent Proto-Indo-European pattern distinct from Iranian, and that the inflectional morphology was different from that of Iranian languages. The hypothesis that Greek is Armenian's closest living relative originates with Holger Pedersen (1924), who noted that the number of Greek-Armenian lexical cognates is greater than that of agreements between Armenian and any other Indo-European language. Antoine Meillet (1925, 1927) further investigated morphological and phonological agreement and postulated that

1071-609: A curfew three days later. In 1990 the army dispatched special forces units and various other elements to Stepanakert in order to prevent its takeover by Azerbaijani forces. After Azerbaijan declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Stepanakert was renamed Khankendi by the Azerbaijani government. Fighting broke out over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, which, after three years of war, resulted in Armenian control of

1224-557: A group of Russian soldiers under the instigation of Ja'far Qoli Agha and the commander of the Russian garrison. Although Ja'far Qoli Agha had hoped to become the new khan for helping the Russians against his grandfather's "betrayal", they ultimately appointed Ibrahim Khalil Khan's 30-year-old son Mehdi Qoli Khan Javanshir , due to the support he enjoyed amongst the distinguished figures of Karabakh. Mehdi Qoli Khan consented to abide by

1377-458: A heavier one, which almost weighted the same as that of 10 kopecks of the Russian empress Catherine II. According to the numismatists Alexander Akopyan and Pavel Petrov, this was not unusual, as Ibrahim Khalil displayed pro-Russian sentiment and engaged in negotiations with Russian officials, but was also under Iranian influence and tried to have his coins easily spread in Iran. The panahabadi

1530-525: A hostage in his stead, claiming that his age-related ailments prevented him from meeting Agha Mohammad Khan directly. However, he still refused to give entry into Shusha. Agha Mohammad Khan was willing to compromise in order to clear a path to Tiflis due to the campaign's primary goal being the subjugation of Georgia. As a result of Heraclius' refusal to submit, Agha Mohammad Khan marched to Tiflis and had it ravaged in September 1795. Catherine II, viewing

1683-550: A large force to the Aras River, while the crown prince Abbas Mirza was assigned with the task of handling Ibrahim Khalil Khan. The Russians were temporarily interrupted by the murder of Tsitsianov in February 1806. During this period, Ibrahim Khalil Khan sent a letter to Fath-Ali Shah, in which he apologized for yielding to the Russians, declared his willingness to side with Iran, and requested assistance in regaining control of

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1836-468: A loan from Armenian (compare to Armenian եւ yev , ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi ). Other loans from Armenian into Urartian includes personal names, toponyms, and names of deities. Loan words from Iranian languages , along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led some linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that

1989-425: A network of schools where modern Armenian was taught, dramatically increased the rate of literacy (in spite of the obstacles by the colonial administrators), even in remote rural areas. The emergence of literary works entirely written in the modern versions increasingly legitimized the language's existence. By the turn of the 20th century both varieties of the one modern Armenian language prevailed over Grabar and opened

2142-578: A population of 1,495 consisting of 801 men and 694 women; there were 628 Armenian Apostolics , 442 Muslims , and 394 Orthodox . Armenian language Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Armenian

2295-498: A possibility following the death of Shahnazar II in 1792. The panahabadi was modeled after a silver coin variant minted by the Ganja Khanate . The khans of Karabakh never issued coins under their own name, due to lacking the legitimacy of an sovereign monarch and any claims to independence. Two types of panahabadi have been discovered, one of light weight, which corresponded to one eighth of Iranian rupia , and

2448-552: A result of 3–0. There was also interest in other sports, including basketball and volleyball . Artsakh athletes also took part with the representing teams and athletes in the Pan-Armenian Games , organized in Armenia. As an unrecognized entity, the athletes of Artsakh competed in international sports competitions under the flag of Armenia. Stepanakert was twinned with: The late-19th-century church of Vararakn

2601-607: A result of some 10,000 to 15,000 displaced people who lost their homes elsewhere in the Republic of Artsakh during the war. On 19–20 September 2023 Azerbaijan launched a new offensive in the region , which ended in a ceasefire and led to a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians a few days later. By 29 September 2023, police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Artsakh left all their weapons in Stepanakert and completely abandoned

2754-413: A trial was held over an Azerbaijani director of the city school who was accused of murdering an Armenian girl. The Armenians, who considered the verdict of the Azerbaijani judge too lenient, gathered outside the court building and burned the car which the criminal and judge were in. Stepanakert served as Nagorno-Karabakh's main economic hub, and by the mid-1980s there were nineteen factories in operation in

2907-475: A yearly payment. Soon finding himself in a difficult position, Ibrahim Khalil Khan rejoined the Iranians. However, he was shortly afterwards murdered by a group of Russian soldiers under the instigation of his grandson Ja'far Qoli Agha and the Russian garrison leader. The Russians subsequently confirmed Ibrahim Khalil Khan's son Mehdi Qoli Khan as the khan, although real power was held by the Russians. By signing

3060-552: Is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages . It is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological changes within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization , although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, Greek (and Phrygian ), Albanian and Indo-Iranian were dialectally close to each other; within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian

3213-561: Is clearly the dialect to be most closely related to Armenian. Eric P. Hamp (1976, 91) supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis and even anticipates a time "when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian" (meaning the postulate of a Graeco-Armenian proto-language). Armenian shares the augment and a negator derived from the set phrase in the Proto-Indo-European language * ne h₂oyu kʷid ("never anything" or "always nothing"),

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3366-474: Is derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥ǵipyós , with cognates in Sanskrit (ऋजिप्य, ṛjipyá ), Avestan ( ərəzifiia ), and Greek (αἰγίπιος, aigípios ). Hrach Martirosyan and Armen Petrosyan propose additional borrowed words of Armenian origin loaned into Urartian and vice versa, including grammatical words and parts of speech, such as Urartian eue ("and"), attested in the earliest Urartian texts and likely

3519-743: Is located on the Karabakh plateau , at an average altitude of 813 m (2,667 ft) above sea level . The city has a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ) according to the Köppen climate classification system and an oceanic climate ( Do ) according to the Trewartha climate classification system. In the month of January, the average temperature drops to 1 °C (34 °F). In July, it averages around 23 °C (73 °F). Extreme temperatures ranged from −15.0 °C (5 °F) on January 8, 1974, to 37.0 °C (99 °F) on July 11, 1978. During

3672-415: Is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. There are words used in Armenian that are generally believed to have been borrowed from Anatolian languages, particularly from Luwian , although some researchers have identified possible Hittite loanwords as well. One notable loanword from Anatolian is Armenian xalam , "skull", cognate to Hittite ḫalanta , "head". In 1985,

3825-661: Is the working language. Armenian (without reference to a specific variety) is officially recognized as a minority language in Cyprus , Hungary , Iraq , Poland , Romania , and Ukraine . It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . Karabakh Khanate The Karabakh Khanate (also spelled Qarabagh ; Persian : خانات قره‌باغ , romanized :  Khānāt-e Qarabāgh ; Russian : Карабахское ханство , romanized :  Karabakhskoye khanstvo )

3978-552: The sahibqirani is engraved with a Persian poem; be-nām muhrum ṣāḥib az-zamānī, mukram sikke ṣāḥibqirānī ("in the name of the stamp of Sahib al-Zamani, this sahibqirani minted with honor"). The majority of the known coins minted by the Karabakh Khanate were issued during their association with Russia. According to a survey conducted by the Russian Empire in 1823, the mahals (districts) of Karabakh

4131-659: The iqta' (land grants) made to women in the Seljuk and Ilkhanate eras. A portion from Qom's earnings was provided to Ibrahim Khalil Khan's daughter Agha Baji and her 200 personal attendants from Karabakh after she joined the harem of Fath-Ali Shah. A lot of crown land was also given out; Abu'l-Fath Khan Javanshir , one of Ibrahim Khalil Khan's sons, was given much of the land of the Shahsevan tribe in Azerbaijan. The administrative and literary language in Karabakh until

4284-466: The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (11–14th centuries) resulted in the addition of two more characters to the alphabet (" օ " and " ֆ "), bringing the total number to 38. The Book of Lamentations by Gregory of Narek (951–1003) is an example of the development of a literature and writing style of Old Armenian by the 10th century. In addition to elevating the literary style and vocabulary of

4437-563: The Armenian genocide , mostly in the diaspora ). The differences between them are considerable but they are mutually intelligible after significant exposure. Some subdialects such as Homshetsi are not mutually intelligible with other varieties. Although Armenians were known to history much earlier (for example, they were mentioned in the 6th-century BC Behistun Inscription and in Xenophon 's 4th century BC history, The Anabasis ),

4590-641: The Greek language , the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages . Graeco-Aryan unity would have become divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-3rd millennium BC. Conceivably, Proto-Armenian would have been located between Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian, consistent with the fact that Armenian shares certain features only with Indo-Iranian (the satem change) but others only with Greek ( s > h ). Graeco-Aryan has comparatively wide support among Indo-Europeanists who believe

4743-643: The Indo-European homeland to be located in the Armenian Highlands , the " Armenian hypothesis ". Early and strong evidence was given by Euler's 1979 examination on shared features in Greek and Sanskrit nominal flection. Used in tandem with the Graeco-Armenian hypothesis, the Armenian language would also be included under the label Aryano-Greco-Armenic , splitting into Proto-Greek/Phrygian and "Armeno-Aryan" (ancestor of Armenian and Indo-Iranian ). Classical Armenian (Arm: grabar ), attested from

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4896-735: The Lezgins , where he concealed himself from Nader Shah. Following Nader Shah's assassination in 1747, Iran fell into turmoil, especially in the South Caucasus. There the Georgians and local khans fought over land. Some Turkic tribes took advantage of his death by restoring their power in Iranian Armenia. The Qajars restored their power in Ganja, Erivan and Nakhchivan, while Panah Ali Khan seized control over all of Karabakh, with

5049-542: The Mekhitarists . The first Armenian periodical, Azdarar , was published in grabar in 1794. The classical form borrowed numerous words from Middle Iranian languages , primarily Parthian , and contains smaller inventories of loanwords from Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, Arabic, Mongol, Persian, and indigenous languages such as Urartian . An effort to modernize the language in Bagratid Armenia and

5202-653: The Panahabad fortress constructed in Shusha , a place in Varanda. Panah Ali Khan relocated the notables, dignitaries, and tribal leaders there. The power of the Javanshir became centered in that stronghold, which would withstand many sieges. The nature of the Javanshir khans' patron-client relationship with Shahnazar II is unclear, but it appears that their control of the fortress was restricted to its southern part, which

5355-536: The Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, Iran officially ceded most of their Caucasian holdings (including Karabakh) to Russia. In 1822, Mehdi Qoli Khan fled to Iran as a result of the attempts by the Russian general Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov to abolish the khanates, which occurred afterwards. Karabakh is a historic region located in the Armenian highlands in the South Caucasus . The area was originally considered

5508-503: The Treaty of Gulistan , in which Iran agreed to cede the majority of their holdings in the eastern Caucasus to Russia, including Karabakh. The treaty was signed in Gulistan , a village in Karabakh. The Iranians were disillusioned by the treaty, and officials like Mirza Bozorg Qa'em-Maqam vehemently opposed it. In 1822, Mehdi Qoli Khan fled to Iran as a result of the attempts by the Russian general Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov to abolish

5661-431: The melik of Varanda, while he imposed his authority on the remaining meliks and made their subjects pay him taxes. Both Armenian sources and the Javanshir historian Mirza Jamal Javanshir agree that it was through the efforts of Shahnazar II (who was in conflict with the other meliks ) that Panah Ali Khan gained access to the highlands and started attacking the meliks . Together, Panah Ali Khan and Shahnazar II had

5814-531: The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, the economy once again experienced severe damage, particularly in the tourism sector. The most developed sectors of Stepanakert and the rest of the Republic of Artsakh are tourism and services. Several hotels were opened by diasporan Armenians from Russia, the United States and Australia. Artsakhbank was the largest banking services provider in Artsakh, while Karabakh Telecom

5967-408: The 5th century to the 19th century as the literary standard (up to the 11th century also as a spoken language with different varieties), was partially superseded by Middle Armenian , attested from the 12th century to the 18th century. Specialized literature prefers "Old Armenian" for grabar as a whole, and designates as "Classical" the language used in the 5th century literature, "Post-Classical" from

6120-591: The Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh, viewed Gorbachev's reform program as an opportunity to unite the two together. On 20 February 1988, tens of thousands of Armenians gathered to demonstrate in Stepanakert's Lenin Square (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 strongly opposed by

6273-481: The Armenian language by adding well above a thousand new words, through his other hymns and poems Gregory paved the way for his successors to include secular themes and vernacular language in their writings. The thematic shift from mainly religious texts to writings with secular outlooks further enhanced and enriched the vocabulary. "A Word of Wisdom", a poem by Hovhannes Sargavak devoted to a starling, legitimizes poetry devoted to nature, love, or female beauty. Gradually,

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6426-521: The Armenians and Tatars. There were a few more people living in Armenian villages than in Tatar ones. The number of nomad pastures was about 375. Accordingly, there were 30 families per settlement and approximately 25 families every nomad pasture. Karabakh's overall population is estimated to have been between 113,000 and 115,000 people, taking into account the estimated 5.5–6.5 person average family size in

6579-498: The Armenians in the lowlands was further dwindled by Timur 's conquests and invasions of Turkmen tribes in the 14th and 15th centuries. By the early 16th century, Armenia had become a focal point of the constant wars between the Ottoman Empire ( c.  1299 –1922) and Safavid Iran (1501–1736), which further reduced the Armenian population. The Safavids divided their Armenian territories into two provinces ruled by

6732-516: The Azerbaijanis positioned BM-21 Grad rocket artillery in Shusha and rained down missiles over Stepanakert. A journalist for Time noted in an April 1992 article that "scarcely a single building [had] escaped damage in Stepanakert." It was not until 9 May 1992, with the capture of Shusha , that the ground bombardment ceased. The city, nevertheless, continued to suffer aerial bombardment until

6885-701: The Giant Cross and the Eagle Monument, and statues of prominent Armenians in the city, among them, Stepan Shahumyan (after whom Stepanakert is named), Charles Aznavour and Alexander Myasnikyan . In early March 2024, Azerbaijani authorities demolished the National Assembly of Artsakh Building and the Artsakh Freedom Fighters Union Building. In November 2024, reports emerged that Azerbaijan demolished

7038-467: The Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian origins for these words and instead suggest native Armenian etymologies, leaving the possibility that these words may have been loaned into Hurro-Urartian and Caucasian languages from Armenian, and not vice versa. A notable example is arciv , meaning "eagle", believed to have been the origin of Urartian Arṣibi and Northeast Caucasian arzu . This word

7191-523: The Iranian forces could assault its garrison. One of Ibrahim Khalil Khan's grandchildren, Ja'far Qoli Agha, the son of Mohammad Hasan Agha, whose succession was meant to be assured by the Treaty of Kurekchay and who had his own plans for ruling Karabakh, was frightened and angered by this action. On 2 June 1806, Ibrahim Khalil Khan along with some of his relatives and 30 members of his retinue were killed by

7344-474: The Iranian forces succeeded in getting to the other side of the river by using boats, and also rebuilt the bridge. Ibrahim Khalil Khan's forces were defeated and withdrew to Shusha, which was then besieged by Agha Mohammad Khan for 43 days. Due to the capture of his two nephews and the worsening conditions of the siege, Ibrahim Khalil Khan petitioned for peace and promised that he would acknowledge Agha Mohammad Khan's suzerainty. He sent one of his sons to act as

7497-459: The Iranian shahs had declared rulership over parts of the Caucasus. This included Nader Shah, Karim Khan and now Agha Mohammad Khan. The neighboring khanates were still seen as Iranian dependencies even when the shahs in mainland Iran lacked the power to enforce their rule in the area. Likewise, Agha Mohammad Khan also considered Georgia to be an Iranian province. He issued threatening letters to

7650-435: The Karabakh Khanate was a miniature version of Iranian kingship. In the same pattern as Afsharid and Zand rulers, Panah Ali Khan's family were all distinguished figures and served as officials. He used minbashis , yuzbashis , monshis , eshiq-aghasis , keshikchis , yasavols , nazers , and other personnel in the administration of his court and province. In exchange for tax exemption, every Karabakhi tribesman who appeared on

7803-835: The National Assembly, the Presidential Palace, the Constitutional Court, all ministries, judicial bodies and other government organizations. Under the Republic of Artsakh, the city of Stepanakert was governed by the Stepanakert City Council and the mayor of Stepanakert. The last local elections took place in September 2019. The most recent mayor was Davit Sargsyan. According to the data of the Transcaucasian Statistical Committee, extracted from

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7956-416: The Russian siege of Ganja in 1804. Thus, Ibrahim Khalil Khan's son Abu'l-Fath Khan Javanshir was appointed as the new khan. Despite this, Ibrahim Khalil Khan continued to rule as the khan of Karabakh. Multiple clashes took place in 1804 between the Iranian and Russian armies, but they had no significant impact on the situation. The Georgian nobleman Pavel Tsitsianov , who led the Russian campaign and led

8109-669: The Russian Empire), removed almost all of their Turkish lexical influences in the 20th century, primarily following the Armenian genocide . In addition to Armenia and Turkey, where it is indigenous , Armenian is spoken among the diaspora . According to Ethnologue , globally there are 1.6 million Western Armenian speakers and 3.7 million Eastern Armenian speakers, totalling 5.3 million Armenian speakers. In Georgia, Armenian speakers are concentrated in Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki districts where they represent over 90% of

8262-404: The Russian and Ottoman empires led to creation of two separate and different environments under which Armenians lived. Halfway through the 19th century, two important concentrations of Armenian communities were further consolidated. Because of persecutions or the search for better economic opportunities, many Armenians living under Ottoman rule gradually moved to Istanbul , whereas Tbilisi became

8415-437: The Russians, as he feared them more than the Iranians. Although neither a treaty nor a Russian garrison was established in Karabakh, this event established a model for eventual Russian assertions of sovereignty over Karabakh and other khanates. However, Catherine II's death on 17 November 1796 led to the withdrawal of the Russian forces under the orders of her son and successor Paul I ( r.  1796–1801 ), and thus an end to

8568-588: The Russians, asking them for assistance against the impending invasion. 10,000 of Agha Mohammad Khan's forces first marched towards Talesh, which quickly submitted. Meanwhile, Ibrahim Khalil Khan had the Khudafarin bridge demolished to stop the Iranian army from crossing the Aras River . The bridge served as the main route from the Azerbaijan region into Karabakh and the rest of Caucasus. Despite this,

8721-475: The Soviet Azerbaijani authorities. Relations between Stepanakert's Armenians and Azerbaijanis, who supported the Azerbaijani government's position, deteriorated in the following years. Inter-ethnic strife in the city in September 1988, encompassing physical attacks and burning of property, forced nearly all Azerbaijanis to flee the city. The Soviet Army took up positions in the city and announced

8874-600: The Soviet government in honor of Stepan Shahumian , a fallen Bolshevik party member and leader of the 26 Baku Commissars . The former regional capital was Shusha. However, following the depopulation of Armenians in Shusha, the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) was sited in Stepanakert. At the time of the formation of the NKAO, Stepanakert was a dilapidated settlement, where

9027-780: The Soviet linguist Igor M. Diakonoff noted the presence in Classical Armenian of what he calls a "Caucasian substratum" identified by earlier scholars, consisting of loans from the Kartvelian and Northeast Caucasian languages . Noting that Hurro-Urartian-speaking peoples inhabited the Armenian homeland in the second millennium BC, Diakonoff identifies in Armenian a Hurro-Urartian substratum of social, cultural, and animal and plant terms such as ałaxin "slave girl" ( ← Hurr. al(l)a(e)ḫḫenne ), cov "sea" ( ← Urart. ṣûǝ "(inland) sea"), ułt "camel" ( ← Hurr. uḷtu ), and xnjor "apple (tree)" ( ← Hurr. ḫinzuri ). Some of

9180-513: The Tabrizi quarter was totally made up of people with Muslim names. In the Tabrizi sector of Shusha, there were 162 Muslim families, whereas the other two-quarters of Shusha were home to 209 Armenian families. The survey also includes a list of Muslim (numbering 765) and Armenian (numbering 326) families who were listed as inhabiting Shusha and its surroundings, originating from several settlements and nomadic fields in Karabakh. They either belonged to

9333-417: The Treaty of Kurekchay on September 22, 1806, when tsar Alexander I ( r.  1801–1825 ) officially confirmed him as khan. Kotliarevskii, the new commander of the Russian garrison in Shusha, was forbidden by the Russian commander Ivan Gudovich to meddle in the internal affairs of the khanate because of his high regard for Mehdi Qoli Khan. Although Mehdi Qoli Khan held the title of khan of Karabakh, he

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9486-715: The Tumo Centre and the Armenian General Benevolent Union , with the support of mobile operator Karabakh Telecom. Football was a popular sport in Nagorno-Karabakh and the city has a renovated football stadium. Since the mid-1990s, football teams from Karabakh started taking part in some domestic competitions in Armenia . Lernayin Artsakh is the football club that represents the city of Stepanakert. The Artsakh national football league

9639-401: The area throughout the 19th century. In the five mahals (Gulistan, Khachen, Jraberd, Varanda and Dizak) that later came to be known as Nagorno-Karabakh , the Armenians made up the vast majority of the population. In all the villages in the mahals of Gulistan, Khachen, and Jraberd, they were the only people there. One Tatar village existed in each of the mahals of Varanda and Dizak, while

9792-477: The attack on Tiflis as an offense to Russia, used it as a reason to invade the South Caucasus. In March 1796, she sent a public declaration, written in Persian and Armenian , to all the khans and important figures of the region. The letter explained her reason behind the invasion as a way to protect Georgia and the rest of the South Caucasus from the "usurper" Agha Mohammad Khan. Ibrahim Khalil Khan submitted to

9945-525: The campaign. By January 1797, all the Russian troops had withdrawn to Kizlyar . In order to exact revenge on the khans who had acknowledged the authority of Russia, Agha Mohammad Khan went back to the Caucasus. Ibrahim Khalil Khan escaped this time to his relative Umma Khan V in Daghestan , but his family was reinstated following Agha Mohammad Khan's assassination in Shusha on 17 June 1797. Ibrahim Khalil Khan's nephew Mohammad Beg briefly assumed charge of

10098-421: The castle at Shusha. Ibrahim Khalil Khan's change of heart had been caused by the recent death of his eldest son and heir Mohammad Hasan Agha, who was a prominent major-general in the Russian army, and the Russians not seeming to be in a position to defend effectively against the larger Iranian army that was drawing near. Fath-Ali Shah pardoned Ibrahim Khalil Khan, who moved to an adjacent hill outside Shusha so that

10251-434: The center of Armenians living under Russian rule. These two cosmopolitan cities very soon became the primary poles of Armenian intellectual and cultural life. The introduction of new literary forms and styles, as well as many new ideas sweeping Europe, reached Armenians living in both regions. This created an ever-growing need to elevate the vernacular, Ashkharhabar, to the dignity of a modern literary language, in contrast to

10404-473: The church was expected to take place in September 2016. Construction finished and the church was opened in 2019. There was small community of Armenian Evangelicals with around 500 members. The only Armenian evangelical church in Artsakh was located in Stepanakert. The Evangelical community supported many schools, hospitals and other institutions through the help of the Armenian Diaspora . The city

10557-538: The city became a hotbed for political activity, serving as the center for Armenian demonstrations calling for the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. Stepanakert suffered extensive damage following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the outbreak of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and passed into the hands of local Armenians with the establishment of the Republic of Artsakh . During

10710-523: The city later that day, showing deserted streets in what the reporter described as "A ghost town with no soul left". After the offensive and Armenian exodus, sources reported that Azerbaijani authorities issued a map of Stepanakert renaming one of the streets after Enver Pasha , one of the main perpetrators of the Armenian genocide . An Azerbaijani official disputed this during a case at the International Court of Justice , saying that "No streets in Khankandi have been renamed". President Ilham Aliyev visited

10863-455: The city of Tabriz . He also asked for a deadline of the summer to prepare to make the trip himself. Soleyman Khan took Abd al-Samad as his captive, and by the end of November 1793 went to the Mazandaran region before making his way to the city of Tehran . Abd al-Samad was later part of the retinue that accompanied Agha Mohammad Khan during his siege of the city of Kerman . During the siege, Abd al-Samad made an attempt to escape to Karabakh, but

11016-567: The city on 15 October and officially raised the flag of Azerbaijan at the building that was previously used as the Artsakh Presidential Palace. In December 2023, the first football match since the resumption of Azerbaijani control was played between MOIK Baku and Qarabağ FK from Aghdam in the Azerbaijan Cup . In the following months, Azerbaijani authorities dismantled monuments symbolizing Artsakh, including

11169-782: The city was named after Charles Aznavour . Stepanakert was home to the Mesrop Mashtots Republican Library opened in 1924, Artsakh History Museum opened in 1939, Hovhannes Tumanyan Children's Library opened in 1947, Stepanakert National Gallery opened in 1982, and the Memorial Museum of the Martyred Liberators opened in 2002. A new cultural complex of the Armenian heritage of Artsakh was under construction. The Artsakh State Museum , based in Stepanakert, had an important collection of ancient artifacts and Christian manuscripts. Stepanakert

11322-477: The city's bomb shelters . As Azerbaijani forces advanced on the city of Shusha , the Lachin corridor was shut down by Artsakh authorities. With Azerbaijani forces 15 km (9.3 mi) from the capital, a ceasefire agreement was signed on 10 November. As part of the agreement, Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region. Following the war, the population of Stepanakert swelled to 75,000 residents as

11475-400: The city, including an electrical and asphalt plant. By the end of the Soviet era, Stepanakert had an agricultural technical school, a pedagogical institute , a medical and music school, a local history museum, and a drama theater. The political and economic reforms that General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev undertook in 1985 saw a marked decentralization of Soviet authority. Armenians, in both

11628-450: The city, with almost the entire Armenian population forced to flee to Armenia ahead of the advancing Azerbaijani forces. It was an abandoned ghost city for a year; Azerbaijan began settling new permanent residents in the city in September 2024 with the opening of Karabakh University . Medieval Armenian sources attest to a settlement in the locale called Vararakn ( Armenian : Վարարակն , lit.   'rapid spring'). In 1847,

11781-434: The control by the Armenians, the city was a regional center of education and culture, being home to Artsakh University , musical schools, and a palace of culture . The economy was based on the service industry and had varied enterprises, food processing , wine making , and silk weaving being the most important. As of 2021, the population of Stepanakert was 75,000. In September 2023, Azerbaijani authorities took control of

11934-485: The economy of Stepanakert was mainly based on food-processing industries, silk weaving and winemaking . Inhabitants also engaged in producing furniture and footwear. The economy was severely damaged due to the 1988 earthquake in Armenia and the First Nagorno Karabakh war. In the years following, the economy was developed further, mainly due to investments from the Armenian diaspora . However, following

12087-547: The end of the 19th century was Persian, with Arabic being used only for religious studies, despite the fact that most of the Muslims in the region spoke a Turkic dialect. Persian was also spoken in the judiciary. The political history of Iran under the Safavid, Afsharid, Zand, or Qajar dynasties is the main subject of the majority of Iranian primary sources. Events taking place in remote areas like Karabakh are typically given

12240-591: The end of the war. As a result, the majority of the city was in a severely damaged state. As of 2016, the city had not been completely restored from the war. The city came under intense bombardment once again during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020. Residential areas were continuously hit by the Azerbaijani Army with cluster munitions throughout the war, starting on the first day of fighting, and residents were urged to use

12393-551: The exception of the five melikdoms. Ibrahim Khalil Khan and the rest of the Javanshir tribe had also returned to Karabakh. In 1748, Panah Ali Khan declared his allegiance to Nader Shah's son and successor Adel Shah ( r.  1747–1748 ), who officially appointed him khan of Karabakh. Shortly afterwards, Panah Ali Khan had the Bayat Castle constructed, in which he housed his entire family, his retinue, dignitaries, and numerous tribal leaders. Panah Ali Khan soon fell into

12546-580: The existence of the two modern versions of the same language was sanctioned even more clearly. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1920–1990) used Eastern Armenian as its official language, whereas the diaspora created after the Armenian genocide preserved the Western Armenian dialect. The two modern literary dialects, Western (originally associated with writers in the Ottoman Empire) and Eastern (originally associated with writers in

12699-694: The fact that most of the Muslims in the region spoke a Turkic dialect. It was governed by members of the Javanshir , a Turkic tribe which lived in the lowlands of the region. In 1747, the Javanshir chieftain Panah Ali Khan capitalized on the turmoil that erupted after the death of the Iranian shah (king) Nader Shah ( r.  1736–1747 ) by seizing most of Karabakh. The following year he declared his allegiance to Nader Shah's son and successor Adel Shah ( r.  1747–1748 ), who officially appointed him khan of Karabakh. Panah Ali Khan's tenure

12852-603: The family lists of 1886, there were 71 houses and 279 residents registered in Khankendi (recorded as Ханкенды, Khankendy in Russian ), of which 276 were Russians, 2 Armenians and 1 Tatar (later known as Azerbaijani ), who were respectively Orthodox, Armenian Gregorian and Sunni Muslim by religion. According to the Russian Empire Census of 1897, the village, labelled as Khan-kendy ( Russian : Ханъ-кенды ), had

13005-474: The foundation of the Afsharid dynasty . Nader Shah rewarded the meliks by acknowledging Karabakh and Zangezur as semi-autonomous regions. He had Iranian Armenia organized into four khanates ; Erivan, Nakhchivan, Ganja, and Karabakh. A khanate was a type of administrative unit governed by a hereditary or appointed ruler subject to Iranian rule. The title of the ruler was either beglarbegi or khan , which

13158-428: The historical Armenian center of the city. The Vahram Papazyan Drama Theater of Stepanakert was founded in 1932. In 1967, the monumental complex of Stepanakert known as We Are Our Mountains was erected to the north of Stepanakert, It is widely regarded as a symbol of the Armenian heritage of the historic Artsakh . After the independence of Armenia, many cultural and youth centres were reopened. The cultural palace of

13311-459: The hubs of the khanate. The strongholds of Bayat, Shah-Bulaghi, and Shusha required a large number of craftsmen and laborers to construct and maintain them. A common method in a large fortress-town was to have it centered around a maidan (square), which was next to the bazaar , the principal mosque, and hammams (baths). Following the establishment of the Iranian rial currency in 1790,

13464-425: The hypothetical Mushki language may have been a (now extinct) Armenic language. W. M. Austin (1942) concluded that there was early contact between Armenian and Anatolian languages , based on what he considered common archaisms, such as the lack of a feminine gender and the absence of inherited long vowels. Unlike shared innovations (or synapomorphies ), the common retention of archaisms (or symplesiomorphy )

13617-428: The inhabitants of Shusha. The Armenian quarters were required to pay the most, providing 590 gold rubles and 200 kharvars ("donkey's load") of firewood every year. The Muslim quarter were required to pay 200 gold rubles and 60 kharvars of firewood. Karabakh was a province of an imperial structure that was entirely Iranian, in the same fashion as other provinces such as Lorestan and Khorasan. In terms of structure,

13770-470: The interests of the population at large were reflected in other literary works as well. Konsdantin Yerzinkatsi and several others took the unusual step of criticizing the ecclesiastic establishment and addressing the social issues of the Armenian homeland. These changes represented the nature of the literary style and syntax, but they did not constitute immense changes to the fundamentals of the grammar or

13923-512: The khan's family and his relatives lived there. By the 19th century, the settlement was renamed Khankendi ("village of the khan" in Azerbaijani ). The town was renamed Stepanakert ("city of Stepan") in 1923, after Armenian Bolshevik revolutionary Stepan Shahumian . The name is formed from the words Stepan ( Armenian : Ստեփան ) and kert ( Armenian : կերտ , lit.   'created'). According to medieval Armenian sources,

14076-442: The khan's family, the clergy, the government, or the subjects of different officials. Instead of paying taxes, they provided a range of services to the monarch, the mulkdars , or the tiyuldars . This means that in 1823, there were a total of 1,462 families living in Shusha and its surroundings, with 921 families (63.41%) of them being Muslims and 535 (36.59%) of them being Armenian. Taxes were paid yearly in one single payment by

14229-424: The khanate, but not long after Ibrahim Khalil Khan came back and re-established his authority. He quickly established friendly relations with Agha Mohammad Khan's successor Fath-Ali Shah Qajar ( r.  1797–1834 ), who married his daughter and confirmed him as the khan of Karabakh. Fath-Ali Shah was later convinced of Ibrahim Khalil Khan's lack of reliability by his unwillingness to help Javad Khan against

14382-860: The khanates, which occurred afterwards. In Iran, Mehdi Qoli Khan was amongst the members of the "war party" or the "hawks", who advocated for war against the Russians. He was later amongst the Iranian soldiers during the Russo-Iranian War of 1826–1828 . He was finally given permission to go back to Karabakh in 1836, where he retired. He died 1845 and was buried in Aghdam . According to Mirza Jamal Javanshir, Bayat received many new settlers (including artisans) from nearby areas, including Ardabil and Tabriz. The Iranian American historian George Bournoutian stated this passage shows that Javanshirs tribal dominion included more than just pastoral or migratory land. Their forts, which resembled small cities, served as

14535-421: The khans who had established connections with Russia in an effort to reestablish Iranian dominance over the border districts. In 1792/93, Agha Mohammad Khan assigned his lieutenant Soleyman Khan Qajar with the task of putting an end to any opposition against his authority. Instead of going in person, Ibrahim Khalil Khan dispatched his nephew Abd al-Samad Beg to deliver presents and offerings to Soleyman Khan in

14688-558: The king of Eastern Georgia ( Kartli-Kakheti ). Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar , the future shah of Iran, had been a nominal hostage of Karim Khan in Shiraz and was entirely preoccupied with establishing his authority and eliminating rivals in Iran. As they battled to preserve their autonomy at a time when the Iranians and Russians wanted to incorporate the eastern Caucasus under their own empires, Georgia and Karabakh's partnership turned out to be highly beneficial for both of them. Capitalizing on

14841-434: The late 5th to 8th centuries, and "Late Grabar" that of the period covering the 8th to 11th centuries. Later, it was used mainly in religious and specialized literature, with the exception of a revival during the early modern period, when attempts were made to establish it as the language of a literary renaissance, with neoclassical inclinations, through the creation and dissemination of literature in varied genres, especially by

14994-559: The later leaders of the Javanshir belonged to the Sarijalu tribe as they had taken over the leadership of the Javanshir. For decades, the Javanshir had moved its sheep to Karabakh, where they had given the meliks an annual tax in exchange for access to summer pasturage. Karabakh thus held immense significance for the tribe. In 1723, the Ottomans invaded Iran, conquering most of its northeastern part by 1724. Karabakh and Zangezur were

15147-567: The morphology of the language. Often, when writers codify a spoken dialect, other language users are then encouraged to imitate that structure through the literary device known as parallelism . In the 19th century, the traditional Armenian homeland was once again divided. This time Eastern Armenia was conquered from Qajar Iran by the Russian Empire , while Western Armenia , containing two thirds of historical Armenia, remained under Ottoman control. The antagonistic relationship between

15300-470: The new khan. Following Karim Khan's death in 1779, Ibrahim Khalil Khan strived to maintain his autonomy by allying himself with the Georgian king Heraclius II and making contact with the Russian Empire, even briefly submitting to the latter. Because of his defiance, he was in 1797 ousted from Karabakh by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar , the new ruler of Iran. Following Agha Mohammad Khan's assassination in Shusha

15453-694: The notion of Armenian statehood, were used by the Safavids to fight the Ottoman Empire. From 1554 and onwards, the governorship of both Karabakh and its capital Ganja was held by the Ziyadoghlu family of the Turkic Qajar tribe. Following the collapse of the Safavid regime in 1722, the governorship was divided into two distinct areas, each controlled by a local clan. It was during this period that Panah Ali Khan distinguished himself. He

15606-403: The now-anachronistic Grabar. Numerous dialects existed in the traditional Armenian regions, which, different as they were, had certain morphological and phonetic features in common. On the basis of these features two major standards emerged: Both centers vigorously pursued the promotion of Ashkharhabar. The proliferation of newspapers in both versions (Eastern & Western) and the development of

15759-421: The number of surviving buildings barely reached 10 to 15. Some of the buildings were completely destroyed, others lacked doors and windows, while only walls remained from a number of buildings. During the first years of the oblast, some of the buildings were restored and many were rebuilt, roads were improved, and electricity and telephone communications were installed in the city. In time, Stepanakert grew to become

15912-486: The official status of the Armenian language. Eastern Armenian is the official variant used, making it the prestige variety while other variants have been excluded from national institutions. Indeed, Western Armenian is perceived by some as a mere dialect. Armenian was also official in the Republic of Artsakh . It is recognized as an official language of the Eurasian Economic Union although Russian

16065-639: The oldest surviving Armenian-language writing is etched in stone on Armenian temples and is called Mehenagir . The Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405, at which time it had 36 letters. He is also credited by some with the creation of the Georgian alphabet and the Caucasian Albanian alphabet . While Armenian constitutes the sole member of the Armenian branch of the Indo-European family, Aram Kossian has suggested that

16218-425: The only parts of Iranian Armenia which managed to fend off the Ottomans, under the leadership of Davit Bek , who led the Armenian meliks . Although Davit Bek died between 1726 and 1728, his successors managed to maintain their control over most of the highlands until the resurgence of Iran, now led by Nader Khan Afshar, who repelled the Ottomans in 1735. The following year, he crowned himself as Nader Shah , marking

16371-483: The parent languages of Greek and Armenian were dialects in immediate geographical proximity during the Proto-Indo-European period. Meillet's hypothesis became popular in the wake of his book Esquisse d'une histoire de la langue latine (1936). Georg Renatus Solta (1960) does not go as far as postulating a Proto-Graeco-Armenian stage, but he concludes that considering both the lexicon and morphology, Greek

16524-407: The path to a new and simplified grammatical structure of the language in the two different cultural spheres. Apart from several morphological, phonetic, and grammatical differences, the largely common vocabulary and generally analogous rules of grammatical fundamentals allows users of one variant to understand the other as long as they are fluent in one of the literary standards. After World War I ,

16677-622: The period of the USSR , Stepanakert served as the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast within the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic , between 1923 and 1991. With the self-declared independence of Artsakh in 1991, Stepanakert continued with its status as the political and cultural centre of the newly established republic, being home to all the national institutions: the Government House,

16830-570: The population. The short-lived First Republic of Armenia declared Armenian its official language. Eastern Armenian was then dominating in institutions and among the population. When Armenia was incorporated into the USSR, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic made Eastern Armenian the language of the courts, government institutions and schools. Armenia was also russified . The current Republic of Armenia upholds

16983-468: The records enrolled the cavalry. Even tax-exempt tribes contributed financially and in kind when mercenaries were needed, but the khan covered the expenses of their equipment and horse fodder when they joined the army. The Iranologist Willem Floor uses the example of Panah Ali Khan as an argument that the character and design of Iran's political system were unaffected by increased tribal activity. Qajar Iran contains instances that are similar to those of

17136-415: 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). By early 1992, that figure had dropped to 50,000. During the war, the city suffered immense damage from Azerbaijani bombardment , especially in early 1992 when

17289-423: 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. In 1926, municipal authorities adopted a new city layout designed by Aleksandr Tamanian ; two additional designs for expansion were approved in the 1930s and 1960s, both of which retained Tamanian's initial plan. Several schools and two polyclinics were established, and an Armenian drama theater

17442-437: The region. Azerbaijani police vehicles began patrolling the area on 29 September and the Azerbaijani flag was placed on the city's We Are Our Mountains monument. From 1 October, Azerbaijani officials began working from the former Artsakh police headquarters, Azerbaijan took over responsibility for medical services in the city and its area was covered by the Azerbaijani mobile networks. An Al Jazeera news crew reported from

17595-525: The region. The city is located in a valley on the eastern slopes of the Karabakh mountain range, on the left bank of the Qarqarçay (Karkar) river. The area that would become Stepanakert was originally an Armenian settlement named Vararakn . During the Soviet period, the city was made the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast , becoming a hub for economic and industrial activity. In addition,

17748-436: The representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels, and other phonological and morphological peculiarities with Greek. Nevertheless, as Fortson (2004) comments, "by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, the evidence of any such early kinship has been reduced to a few tantalizing pieces". Graeco-(Armeno)-Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family , ancestral to

17901-459: The rest of the villages were populated by Armenians. Overall, there were 1,536 Armenian families and 53 Tatar families in the five mahals , which means that in 1822, 96.67% of Nagorno-Karabakh inhabitants were Armenians, with the remaining 3.33% being Tatars. According to the 1823 Russian survey, 371 families were registered as living in Shusha's three-quarters. The Kazanchi and Ahlisi quarters were fully made up of people with Armenian names, whilst

18054-418: The same year, Ibrahim Khalil Khan restored his authority in Karabakh. He established friendly relations with Agha Mohammad Khan's successor Fath-Ali Shah Qajar ( r.  1797–1834 ), who married his daughter and confirmed him as the khan of Karabakh. In May 1805, he submitted to the Russians, signing the Treaty of Kurekchay , which granted them full authority over Karabakh's external affairs in exchange for

18207-476: The settlement was originally an Armenian village named Vararakn ( Armenian : Վարարակն ). From the 10th–16th centuries, the settlement was a part of the Armenian Principality of Khachen . Over the centuries, it would successively pass into the hands of the meliks of Karabakh and the Karabakh khans before coming under the control of the Russian Empire in 1822. In the Russian Empire, the town

18360-414: The siege of Ganja, soon forced Ibrahim Khalil Khan to yield and accept a Russian garrison in Shusha. In May 1805, Ibrahim Khalil Khan signed the Treaty of Kurekchay , which granted Russia full authority over Karabakh's external affairs in exchange for a yearly payment. Russia also recognized Ibrahim Khalil and his lineage through his eldest son as the rulers of Karabakh. In the same year, Fath-Ali Shah led

18513-414: The similarities between the two languages meant that Armenian belonged to the Iranian language family . The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann (1875) used the comparative method to distinguish two layers of Iranian words from the older Armenian vocabulary . He showed that Armenian often had two morphemes for one concept, that the non-Iranian components yielded

18666-520: The southern part of Arran and was mostly inhabited by Armenians . However, due to Turkic and Mongol invasions, the Armenians there became a minority in the 11th century, and by the 14th century, the Turko-Persian name Karabakh ("Black Garden") started slowly replacing the name of the area. Many of the surviving Armenian nobles and their followers resettled in the highlands of Karabakh, where they continued to have authority. The population of

18819-540: The spring or summer of 1761, the Afshar chieftain Fath-Ali Khan Afshar besieged Shusha. Panah Ali Khan made him lift the siege by giving Ibrahim Khalil Khan as hostage. By 1762, Karim Khan had established his authority across most of Iran, and was eventually acknowledged by Georgia and the various khans of the South Caucasus as their suzerain. This included Panah Ali Khan, who along with some other khans

18972-434: The ten- shahi stopped being used. It was later re-established by Ibrahim Khalil Khan, being minted in silver at Shusha under the name of panahabadi in honor of Panah Ali Khan. This was the first time silver coins were minted by the khans of Karabakh, a late development compared to other khanates. This was because Panah Ali Khan and Shahnazar II shared control over Shusha, with the minting of silver coins only being

19125-519: The terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, but he suggests they were borrowed through Hurrian or Urartian. Given that these borrowings do not undergo sound changes characteristic of the development of Armenian from Proto-Indo-European , he dates their borrowing to a time before the written record but after the Proto-Armenian language stage. Contemporary linguists, such as Hrach Martirosyan , have rejected many of

19278-593: The treaty, which was to renounce his loyalty to Iran in return for Russian protection. This treaty strained the relationship between Heraclius and Ibrahim Khalil Khan, who also attempted to get in contact with the Russians, but was ignored by Catherine II, as she did not want to get embroiled in the conflict between the khans. Ibrahim Khalil Khan continued his fathers efforts to dominate all of Karabakh, succeeding in retaining Shahnazar II's support and also married his daughter. He also took Melik Bakhtam of Dizak hostage and had him sent to Ardabil in mainland Iran, which Dizak

19431-402: The tribes of Karabakh who had sought asylum in Azerbaijan. Mehdi Qoli Khan, who changed his alliance between Iran and Russia to his greatest advantage like the majority of the khans in the South Caucasus, made the decision to stick by Russia. In an effort to reassure his continuous allegiance to the Russian Empire, he sent Kotliarevskii the farman . The Russo-Iranian War of 1804–1813 ended with

19584-404: The tsarist government turned Khankendi into a Russian military garrison . The garrison consisted of barracks , hospitals, and a church, as well as several houses where officers' families and a small local population, who supplied the military units with food, lived. The local population consisted of Armenians and Azerbaijanis. In February 1920, after a body thought to be of an Azerbaijani soldier

19737-410: The turmoil in Iran, as well as the Ottomans inability to confront Russia, a group of Russians politicians, led by the military leader and statesman Grigory Potemkin , convinced the Russian empress Catherine II ( r.  1762–1796 ) to agree to a bilateral treaty (the Treaty of Georgievsk ) with Heraclius in 1783. Heraclius, who was worried of reinstatement of fidelty to Iran, agreed to the terms of

19890-475: The village was officially renamed from Vararakn to Khankendi by the Russian authorities; however, Vararakn remained the local Armenian name for the town until 1923. Most Azerbaijani sources claim that the settlement was built in late 18th century, as a place of rest for the heads of the Karabakh Khanate . In the first years, it was known as "Khan's village" ( Azerbaijani : Xanın kəndi ) because only

20043-426: Was a khanate under Iranian and later Russian suzerainty, which controlled the historical region of Karabakh , now divided between modern-day Armenia and Azerbaijan . In terms of structure, the Karabakh Khanate was a miniature version of Iranian kingship. The administrative and literary language in Karabakh until the end of the 19th century was Persian, with Arabic being used only for religious studies, despite

20196-735: Was a part of the Shusha uezd of the Elizavetpol Governorate . According to the 19th-century author Raffi , in 1826, the local Armenian meliks met with the Persian crown prince Abbas Mirza , who had invaded Karabakh with his army, in the village to reconcile with the Persians and ensure the safety of the Karabakh Armenian population. In 1847, Vararakn was a village of about 132 houses, consisting of 80 Armenian households, 52 Russian households, an Armenian church, and

20349-506: Was a regional center of education and culture, being home to Artsakh University, musical schools, and a palace of culture . The economy was based on the service industry and has varied enterprises, food processing , wine making , and silk weaving being the most important. In 2021, the population of Stepanakert was 75,000. Stepanakert was the center of the economy of Artsakh. Prior to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War,

20502-464: Was captured and killed near Tehran. This incident upset Ibrahim Khalil, who continued to make excuses to avoid meeting Agha Mohammad Khan. Agha Mohammad Khan was prepared to reinstate Iranian rule in the southeastern Caucasus by the summer of 1795. He was unafraid to engage the Russians, a trait he retained throughout, and neither the Treaty of Georgievsk nor Russian activity in the southeastern Caucasus seemed to discourage him. His 60,000 soldiers, which

20655-573: Was composed of 17,101 families of villagers and nomads. Its inhabitants were either classified as Tatars, Armenians, or nomads. There were 8,445 nomadic families, 4,654 Armenian families, and 4,002 Tatar families, which means that the nomads comprised 49.38% of the population, followed by Armenians (27.22%) and then the Tatars (23.40%). The survey adds that by including Shusha, the entire population of Karabakh consisted of 18,563 families. There were roughly 300 settlements in Karabakh, equally split between

20808-471: Was consecrated on 9 May 2007, in honor of the 15th anniversary of the capture of Shusha by Armenian forces. The construction of the Holy Mother of God Cathedral was launched on 19 July 2006. The cost of the project was expected to be around US$ 2 million and the architect of the church is Gagik Yeranosyan. However, the construction process was slow due to a lack of financial resources. The inauguration of

20961-604: Was destroyed in the 1930s to build the Stepanakert Drama Theatre. Throughout the rest of 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 church of Surp Hakob (or Saint James ) was opened in 2007; it remained the only open church in the city until 2019. The church was financed by Nerses Yepremian from Los Angeles . The church

21114-527: Was found, an anti-Armenian riot took place in the village that claimed several hundred lives. Following the massacre of the Armenian population of Shusha in March 1920, the city received an influx of Armenians; as a result, Armenians formed the majority of the population from that time onwards. In the summer of 1920, the city was occupied by part of the Red Army . In 1923, Khankendi was renamed Stepanakert by

21267-451: Was founded in 1932 and named after Maxim Gorky . In 1960, the ensemble of the central square of Stepanakert was built with the building of the regional committee (now the NKR government). This square, then named after Lenin, became the arena of many rallies demanding the transfer of the NKAO to the Armenian SSR. By 1968, the first outbreak of ethnic violence occurred in Stepanakert. In the city,

21420-576: Was identical to the Ottoman rank of pasha . Nader Shah also forced several Turkic tribes (including the Javanshir) to mainland Iran in order to guarantee their allegiance. Panah Ali Khan's son Ibrahim Khalil Khan and the rest of the Javanshir tribe were forced to resettle in Khorasan . Panah Ali Khan was an exception, as he was kept hostage. However, following the execution of his brother Behbud Ali Beg in c.  1744 , Panah Ali Khan escaped to

21573-489: Was in reality a figurehead, the real authority being held by the Russians. In 1807, southern Karabakh had a sizable Iranian military presence. In June 1812, Mehdi Qoli Khan received a farman (royal decree) from Fath-Ali Shah, asking him to reaffirm his loyalty and work with him to expel the Russians from Karabakh. In addition to forgiving Mehdi Qoli Khan for his earlier transgressions, Fath-Ali Shah would also install him as Karabakh's governor and work with him to bring back

21726-404: Was incorporated into. Ibrahim Khalil also captured both Melik Abov of Gulistan and Melik Medjlum of Jraberd and granted their domains to others. The Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 caused the Russian troops to abandon the city of Tiflis at the same time as Agha Mohammad Khan's authority in Iran was growing. Since the time of the first Safavid shah (king) Ismail I ( r.  1501–1524 ),

21879-615: Was its Muslim sector. In 1757, the Qajar chieftain Mohammad Hasan Khan Qajar made an unsuccessful attempt at capturing Shusha. Panah Ali Khan afterwards captured the city of Ardabil and installed his clansman Dargah-Qoli Beg Javanshir its governor, though it is uncertain how long he held the post. Nazar Ali Khan Shahsevan is later recorded as its governor under the Zand ruler Karim Khan Zand ( r.  1751–1779 ). In

22032-554: Was launched in 2009. The non- FIFA affiliated Artsakh national football team was formed in 2012 and played their first competitive match against the unrecognized Abkhazia national football team in Sukhumi on 17 September 2012. The match ended with a 1–1 draw. The following month, on 21 October 2012, Artsakh played the return match at the Stepanakert Republican Stadium against Abkhazia, winning it with

22185-504: Was marked by building activities (such as the castles of Bayat , Shah-Bulaghi , and Panahabad ) and the subjugation of four of the melikdoms through the assistance of his new ally, Shahnazar II , the melik (prince) of Varanda . In 1762, Panah Ali Khan acknowledged the authority of the Zand ruler Karim Khan Zand ( r.  1751–1779 ), who had established his authority in most of Iran. The latter took Panah Ali Khan hostage to Shiraz and appointed his son Ibrahim Khalil Khan as

22338-477: Was primarily made up of cavalry , advanced into the area in the summer of that year. The first few months were spent by Agha Mohammad Khan winning the Muslim rulers' compliance. Ibrahim Khalil Khan and two other khans ( Mir-Mostafa Khan of Talesh and Mohammad Khan Qajar of Erivan ) entered into correspondence with the Russians, who gave them hope that they could defeat the Iranian forces. Heraclius also contacted

22491-405: Was situated between Proto-Greek ( centum subgroup) and Proto-Indo-Iranian ( satem subgroup). Ronald I. Kim has noted unique morphological developments connecting Armenian to Balto-Slavic languages . The Armenian language has a long literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Another text translated into Armenian early on, and also in the 5th-century,

22644-465: Was still in circulation in some regions of South Caucasus and Iran up until the early 19th century. The inscription on the obverse side read "There is one God, His name is Allah, and Mohammad was His Prophet", whilst its reverse side read "minted in Panahabad." "Panahabad" was a laqab (honorific) used to refer to Shusha, albeit it was only employed in official, bureaucratic language and not as

22797-405: Was taken hostage to the city of Shiraz , where he died. Karim Khan subsequently appointed Ibrahim Khalil Khan as the new khan of Karabakh. Following Karim Khan's death on 1 March 1779, however, a power struggle ensured amongst his kinsmen. Ibrahim Khalil Khan took advantage on the chaos that followed by pursuing his own goals. He enhanced his standing by forging an alliance with Heraclius II ,

22950-682: Was the Armenian Alexander Romance . The vocabulary of the language has historically been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages , particularly Parthian ; its derivational morphology and syntax were also affected by language contact with Parthian, but to a lesser extent. Contact with Greek, Persian , and Syriac also resulted in a number of loanwords. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian (spoken mainly in Armenia) and Western Armenian (spoken originally mainly in modern-day Turkey and, since

23103-435: Was the center of higher education in Artsakh. Five higher educational institutions operated in the city: Many new schools in Stepanakert were opened from the late 1990s to 2010 with the help of the Armenian diaspora . Existing schools were also renovated with donations from the diaspora. The Stepanakert branch of Tumo Center for Creative Technologies was opened in September 2015, as a result of continued cooperation between

23256-615: Was the leader of the Turkic Javanshir tribe , which now dominated the lowlands of Karabakh, as well as the Otuziki and Kebirlu tribal federation. The Safavid-era historian Iskandar Beg Munshi (died c.  1632 ) reported that the Javanshir did not belong to the seven principal Qizilbash tribes, but instead a lower-ranking group referred to as the " gholam amirs ". According to the Rowzat-al-Safa Naseri ,

23409-450: Was the leading provider of mobile telecommunications and other communication services. Stepanakert was also home to many large industrial firms, including Stepanakert Brandy Factory, Artsakh Berry food products and Artsakh Footwear Factory. Construction was also one of the leading sectors in the city. Artsakh Hek is the leading construction firm, while Base Metals was the leader in mining and production of building materials. Stepanakert

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