BAKU, August 1, 2025 — Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has demanded an official apology from Russia’s state news agency TASS after it used the name “Stepanakert” in a report about the dismantling of a monument to marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky in the city of Khankendi.
The ministry condemned the use of the Soviet-era name, which was associated with the now-defunct self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, calling it a distortion of Azerbaijan’s toponymy and an insult to the country’s sovereignty. In an official statement, the ministry warned that unless TASS corrects the publication and apologizes, Baku will take “appropriate measures” against the agency’s operations in Azerbaijan.
According to Azerbaijani officials, renaming the city to Stepanakert in 1923 after Bolshevik leader Stepan Shaumyan—whom Baku holds responsible for atrocities committed against Azerbaijanis in the early 20th century—was an act of historical injustice.
The ministry also threatened reciprocal action, saying that if Russian media continues to distort Azerbaijani geographic names, Azerbaijani outlets will begin using “historical” names for Russian cities. Examples include Königsberg for Kaliningrad, Orynbor for Orenburg, Sarysu for Volgograd, Solzha-Gala for Grozny, Toyohara for Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and Petroskoy for Petrozavodsk.
Tensions between Baku and Moscow have risen in recent months following Azerbaijan’s military operation in September 2023 that restored full control over Khankendi and other parts of Karabakh. The operation ended with a ceasefire agreement and the dissolution of local armed formations. The self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic ceased to exist on January 1, 2024.
Aivazovsky’s bust was installed in the city in 2021. Its removal, confirmed by Armenian cultural authorities on July 31, was criticized by Russian cultural envoy Mikhail Shvydkoy, who called the act “a demonstrative unfriendly gesture.” Azerbaijan, however, maintains that it has the sovereign right to regulate public monuments on its territory.
